Magic? Student Katarina!
by Eldenwind
Summary: A mystery amnesiac girl suddenly arrives in Mahora, just in time to encounter Negi Springfield, a boy with a ridiculous destiny. Can she evade getting caught up in the coming events? Who is she even? Questions, but no clear answers in sight. Wonderful.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Magister Magi Negima! or any other variant of the name.**

* * *

I find myself waking up to an unfamiliar ceiling.

My eyelids are heavy, and I struggle to get them open.

Once again the ceiling is unfamiliar…

I manage to turn my head with great effort, and find my gaze drawn towards an unusual shade of green.

Slowly my eyes manage to refocus, and I register that its actually someone's hair. With this realisation I manage to register the person standing beside my bed.

Her emotionless eyes are the same colour as her hair which falls down her face and reaches far beyond her shoulders, and her skin reminds me of porcelain… From where her ears should be protrudes a pair of mechanical looking rods.

Decorations…?

Suddenly I notice the distinctly inhuman throat. She's a doll?

Her eyes move as she registers my motion, and any indication that she would be a lifeless doll just left standing there went out the proverbial window.

A… robot…?

Gynoid…

The female android turns around to shout something.

"She's awake now, Mistress, Sensei." Ultimately her tone of voice isn't that loud, but she's definitively speaking Japanese…

But something about what she said bothers me.

'She'? That shouldn't have been bothering me, but a fleeting nagging feeling told me it did.

I put a slender hand against my suddenly aching head.

My memories…

They're… scrambled…?

What few bits I can recall make no sense. I can't remember about myself…

But there are still several around, and when a small girl with exceedingly long blonde hair steps into the room I unconsciously say:

"Kitty?"

While I didn't say it loudly, the girl still heard in the relative silence of the room.

Her blue eyes, previously narrowed in annoyance, widen, and she becomes flustered.

"Wha-? How do you-?" She arrests her own flustered words and clears her throat. "My name is Evangeline A. K. McDowell!" She then declares loudly. "Make sure to remember that!" She tried to look angry, but all she managed was to look absolutely adorable, like an angry little kitten.

I scratch the back of my head embarrassedly.

"Sorry. I don't know what that was all about. My thoughts are really messed up right now, and it just slipped out…" I chuckle nervously.

She looks at me with a surprised look on her face.

Before anyone can say anything another person enters behind her.

A tall man, with a somewhat rugged look to his face, with slightly unkempt spiky hair and signs of stubble around his chin. But he also wears glasses, and his expression speaks of a deep-seated kindness.

"Good, you actually speak Japanese. We were a little bit worried you wouldn't, what with your foreign looks and your… unusual arrival." The first bit of his words gave me understanding, but the second caused a confused look to appear on my face.

How did I arrive?

Actually, I have no memory of arriving here at all.

Where even am I?

His eyes narrow slightly.

"What is the last thing you remember?" He asked suddenly.

I absentmindedly stroke my chin as I tilt my head.

"I… can't remember." I answer hesitantly.

I can't figure out what my most recent memory is. They're all over the place, and none of them feel like they happened recently.

As my gaze begins to wander, I finally take note of my surroundings. The room I am in seems like some kind of infirmary. There are a number of simple beds, and there seems to be pieces of medical equipment and supplies around the room.

I also finally take note of the others' clothes.

The two girls are clad in identical, except for the size, uniforms, consisting of a long-sleeved burgundy blazer, with what appeared to be a blouse underneath, as well as a short, but not indecently so, pleated skirt in various shades of red, with Eva wearing thigh-high stockings and the gynoid wearing ankle-high ones, revealing further doll-like anatomy.

The man was rocking a dark-green suit, with a white shirt underneath and a red tie.

I also realised that I had been squinting really hard, aggravating my already hurting head, and that things were actually quite blurry.

"Hmm… Then what about your name?" The dapper elder continued.

I shook my head. I can get any number of names from my memory, but I can't connect any of them to myself.

"Well, why don't you stay there and rest for a bit. Unfortunately, we couldn't find anything that seemed to belong to you, except for those glasses." The man then said in a carefree manner, indicating a small table next to the bed.

I looked over at it, and found that a pair of glasses lay there. I nodded absentmindedly, muttering "Thanks" to them.

"Well then. We need to go now, but someone will be along shortly." He said as he started to turn to leave. "Oh, and I'm Takamichi T. Takahata. That is, my first name is Takahata- "He then added hastily.

"I understand." I cut him off. The name wasn't entirely unfamiliar to me, and I had some familiarity with the Japanese name conventions.

The little girl left unceremoniously without a word, but the gynoid bowed and gave words of farewell as well as excuses for her mistress.

' _Mistress? Weird.'_ I thought as I watched her leave.

Then I took a few moments to compose myself.

I noted my hair, stark blonde bordering on white, and draping across my slender shoulders. While I couldn't tell much of my actual figure, I could see the slight bulging of a developing bosom.

' _Really? Bosom?'_ I laughed slightly at my own thoughts.

Finally, I sighed and reached for the glasses.

I couldn't quite reach it, and after a few moments of flailing I sighed even deeper.

Then I realised something.

He said those were the only things I had when they found me.

And I wasn't wearing any clothes right now…

' _I don't have any clothes!'_ I despaired, expressing anguish in my head.

After an uncertain amount of time, which was spent trying to figure something out, they returned, this time with two others.

One was a tall busty woman with long blonde hair, a white shirt and a long skirt. She also wore earrings as well as a few necklaces, and she radiated an older woman's charm.

The other was an old man with a peculiarly cylindrical head, far longer than what is normal, which was completely bald, except for a long ponytail sticking out from the back of his head. His eyebrows were massive and bushy, and he had a full long white beard and moustache, and generally gave the impression of an exceedingly old, yet still quite active man. He was wearing traditional Japanese clothes.

"Why do I have to come back here?" Eva said in an annoyed tone of voice.

"Now, now Eva. You were the first one to find her." Takamichi said care-freely.

"Oho? So this is our mystery amnesiac?" The old man said curiously. "Do you truly not remember anything?"

"Indeed. I'm terribly sorry to cause trouble for you all." I shook my head.

"Fumu. It is no trouble." The elder said dismissively. "But, there is a problem. We don't know what to do with you. We don't know who you are, where you came from, or even your age. And according to yourself you don't know either."

I nodded.

"So, I have a suggestion. A proposition you might say." He looked at me seriously. "I am Konoe Konoemon. Headmaster of Mahora academy, which is where you are right now. I would like to invite you to attend Mahora, until we can sort your situation out."

They looked at me with various expression. The old man was unreadable due to his facial hair, the woman looked slightly amused, the gynoid's expression remained the same, Eva looked annoyed and Takamichi had a slightly amused expression.

The name Mahora did tickle some memories, but once again they were vague, and useless.

Takamichi… is a teacher there. Eva is a student, presumably. As is that gynoid. The woman is either a teacher or some other member of the faculty.

Part of my mind told me it would be troublesome.

Another told me it would be extremely amusing.

In the end though, what made my decision for me was the fact that I had literally nothing right now.

"Yes. I accept headmaster." I then looked down. "Could you start by lending me a uniform? I'm afraid I… don't have anything to wear right now."

"Of course. As a matter of fact, we have prepared one we hope to be of the correct size." He said, and indicated for the woman to come forth. "This is Shizuna-Sensei, a guidance counsellor at the school."

"A pleasure to meet you." She said as she stepped forward, holding out a folded set of clothes.

"Takamichi-Kun over here is one of our teachers, and Evangeline and Chachamaru here are students." He then added, indicating the various people.

The gynoid bowed. "Hello. Allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Karakuri Chachamaru of class 2-A." She said in a formal manner. "Mistress is in the same class." She then added, indicating the young looking girl.

It wasn't as unexpected as I thought it would be, and for some reason Chachamaru's words of belonging to class 2-A excited some tucked away part of my mind, even as it caused another to slump down in despair.

"Hello." I returned her bow.

"Now the problem becomes her name and lodging." Takamichi said worriedly. "You are certain you don't remember your name?"

"Unfortunately. I can't recollect my name." I replied dejectedly.

"Then just chose one to go by for now." Eva suddenly interjected with a huff.

Her words left everyone stunned, yet as I recovered from the surprise I realised it didn't sound like a bad idea at all.

"Then for now you may call me Katarina." I choose a name. I'm not sure where I got it from, but it feels close to me. It makes me suspect someone close to me bore that name.

"That's only a first name. You still need a last name." Eva pointed out.

"Crap." I said.

On the other hand, it seemed a plan was forming in the head of the headmaster.

"Oh ho. Perhaps… yes, you are similar enough… Why don't we pretend she is a relative of Evangeline?" And then he put forth a ridiculous proposal.

"Wh- You can't be serious!?" Eva exclaimed.

"But it would allow us to have a last name, and she could room with you. It's perfect." He simply responded.

"Come now Eva, it should be fine, no? Besides, I get the feeling it will be for the best." The way he gave a knowing smile did nothing to comfort me.

"Guh-!" The small girl grit her teeth. "Isn't there some room in the dorms?! Why put her with me?!" She exclaimed.

"Need I remind you of the manner in which she arrived? I fear it might be necessary as well." The headmaster added.

"Then why not just ask Sakurazaki or Tatsumiya!? They should be even more qualified right now!" Eva shouted back.

While I couldn't quite understand what they were talking about, something told me it was bad, and the names being thrown about tickled my memories once again.

And once again I couldn't quite figure out why. I was certain they might have something in common, maybe even with the others here.

After a while of shouting and staring each other down, the diminutive blonde finally surrendered.

"Ugh. Fine. She can be my little sister, come from our home to study with her dear elder sibling." She then declared with a slightly wicked smile.

While it didn't appeal to me overly much, I also didn't find it all that disagreeable, and something told me that she was actually indeed older than me.

"That's fine by me, dear elder sister." I replied with a wide smile.

Two can play at that game.

"Guh-" The loli simply paled.

I don't think she expected me to agree to that.

I just hope I won't get randomly stripped by a nine-year-old kid with magic sneezes.

Where did that even come from?

* * *

 **Author's notes: Why am I even doing this to myself? This is a bit of an experiment. I'm going to see if I can succeed with something. Now, despite the story being in English, everyone in it are speaking Japanese, as you might expect when they are in Japan. As such, Japanese honorifics are going to be used. Also, the story will only regard the manga. Anything outside of the original manga or UQ-Holders will be ignored. Reviews are always welcome.**

 **I hope you enjoyed and that you have a nice day.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Magister Magi Negima! or any other variant of the name.**

* * *

"Oh you have got to be-!" Evangeline shouted, heavily aggravated. "Why would you agree to that?!"

She shook the girl lying in the bed, who held onto her chest while laughing.

"W-well, you walked r-right into that one, and I would be remiss not having such an a-adorable elder sister." The girl who had taken the name Katarina replied, failing miserably at holding back her laughter.

"I am not adorable!" The smaller girl shrieked, flailing her arms angrily. "Who would even want an adorable older sister!? Shouldn't it be an adorable younger sister?!"

Behind her the headmaster chuckled slightly, while Takamichi smiled appreciatively and Shizuna's features were graced by a serene smile.

"Well, I don't mind…" Katarina replied with a wide grin that quickly turned into a mischievous smirk. "Unless of course you would-"

"Absolutely not! I would rather meet Dana again than have someone treat me like their younger sister!" The blonde loli proclaimed loudly.

This prompted a variety of looks, ranging from confused to bewildered, but Katarina tilted her head, as if in recognition, but it went unnoticed by all except Chachamaru, since they were busy looking at Evangeline, or in the case of said person, looking away in a huff.

"Well, if we are all in accord on our cover story, then maybe we could move on to other business." Takamichi finally decided to interject.

Evangeline looked a bit upset still, but even so she agreed.

"Fine. I'll do it then. But don't blame me when this doesn't work out!" She declared.

"Good." The headmaster said happily. "Now, in order to grasp in what class to put you, we will need to test you. Is that agreeable?"

"Of course, headmaster. I wouldn't expect any less from any proper school." The amnesiac girl responded seriously.

"Very well, Shizuna-kun, you help her get dressed and ready." The old man said. "Evangeline-kun, if I could trouble you to go ahead with Chachamaru and prepare to house Katarina-kun, Takamichi-kun and I will prepare the test."

"Fine." Evangeline muttered. "Come on Chachamaru, let's go." She gestured for the gynoid, who until then had remained silent, to follow as she left.

The robot girl gave a short bow as she followed her mistress.

After that the headmaster and teacher left, leaving the girl alone with the counsellor.

"Headmaster, the uniform you lent her…" Takamichi started. "You intend to put her in my class, don't you?"

"Perhaps, but only as long as her results show that she is properly on a suitable level academically." The elderly man replied, his facial hair hiding his expression.

The younger man looked at the elder sceptically.

"You're going to do this no matter what, aren't you?" He said worriedly.

His only response was laughter.

 _ **-Break—**_

Putting the clothes on had been relatively simple, it was nothing overly complicated, and they fit quite well, surprisingly enough.

Her glasses (presumably, she couldn't quite remember, but they were currently the only thing that she actually felt a connection to) were fine, although for some reason they were a bit too large in the frame.

The design was simple, with smaller, rectangular glass-pieces, that were of odd thickness. One was thicker than the other, and in the back of her mind the numbers 4 and 11 were present.

Putting them on was familiar, and her vision straightened out, causing her to realise just how much worse her eye-sight was without them.

But when she tried to walk she found herself stumbling several times, miscalculating distances and taking missteps several times, even failing to prevent her falls several times.

Shizuna-sensei had taken it as disorientation and dismissed it, but it still felt uncomfortable to Katarina.

But after a while she managed to overcome it, and soon she could walk just fine, almost.

She still occasionally fell over for no apparent reason, much to her chagrin.

And after a short walk, they managed to make their way over to a faculty office, where Takamichi awaited them.

After that he took over, and lead her inside the office, which he explained was where she could find him, where a number of written tests awaited her.

All in all, she felt pretty calm as she sat down before the papers. She glanced over them, and found a problem…

She could certainly speak Japanese to a surprisingly high degree… but that didn't mean her ability to read it was equally good…

Luckily, a good number of the test were easy enough to understand anyway, but she did have to embarrassedly explain her predicament anyway, as sometimes she simply couldn't read part of the questions.

Thankfully he did explain what it meant in some cases, and she found that after a while the problem lessened, mostly only showing up on the Japanese test (who'd have thought).

Other than that, she found the math to be simple, although she did seem a little bit rusty, as she couldn't always immediately remember how to do certain things, but for some reason even then it came to her after a while…

So she could remember math, but she couldn't remember her own name?

Physics, chemistry and biology was the same, English was a breeze, and Latin- wait, why were they testing her on Latin? Part of her seemed to have an inkling why, but once again said part refused to put forward anything useful, and she simply shrugged and continued, although she did of course question Takamichi about it, but he gave a vague answer about them having such courses, and that it must have been included by mistake.

Even so she tried her hand at it, kind of enjoying herself, and she found that while her knowledge of Latin wasn't extensive, she did know it on a level that told her she had formal education in it, which surprised her quite a bit, and caused a raised eyebrow from the bespectacled teacher.

Then… then she reached classic literature… and well…

She tried. She even managed to answer some of the questions correctly, which showed she knew something about the subject but…

Yeah, no. She had never studied in Japan before, that much she was certain about.

Ultimately, she left the teacher staring at her results with wonder.

"Well, your written Japanese seems to need some work… other than that…" The scruffy-looking man shook his head slightly. "Let's just say you're perfectly fine and leave it at that."

With those vague words she was allowed to go, where she found Chachamaru waiting for her.

"Mistress instructed me to come pick you up. I hope your tests went well?" The gynoid asked emotionlessly with another small bow.

She returned the gesture, eliciting some flicker of surprise in the lime-haired girl.

"I think it went well, but… Takamichi-sensei's reaction was a bit… odd. So I'm not so sure anymore…" The blonde girl responded uncertainly.

"Worry not, Katarina-san. I am certain you did well." The doll-like (literally) girl replied.

"Thank you Chachamaru-san."

They left the school-building together, and Katarina noted that the weather was fine, actually, it was pretty warm, even if it was apparently approaching winter already.

"It's pretty warm here." She stated in wonder.

"I suppose it might be so, I wouldn't know myself, although I know my classmates think that it's getting cold."

"Oh, yeah. Gynoid. You wouldn't know. I guess I'm just from a colder clime…" She trailed off.

"Is that so? Do you have any inclination as to where you are from?" Chachamaru queried.

"Not Japan, um…" Katarina made an effort to find her native language.

After a while of musing, during which they continued walking, entering a forest, she finally arrived at one language that she knew to such a degree of fluency despite being such an odd choice, that it might just have been her native tongue. Swedish.

But even so she had to wonder. She spent a lot of time thinking in English, which would be somewhat odd if it wasn't her native tongue, but she found it incredibly easy to switch to Swedish as well… not that it said much when she could switch to Japanese just as easily in her mind and she's certain that isn't it.

"I might just be from somewhere in Sweden but…" She couldn't remember the details, but thinking about it made her remember details and aspects of the country.

"Really?" The robot girl asked, then for a few moments seemed to search for something. "Then what is the capital of Sweden?" She then suddenly queried.

"Hmm? Stockholm. Its largest city located on the eastern coast. And considering that I feel a certain level of distaste for it, I don't think I'm from there." The blonde replied.

"Or perhaps you dislike it because it is your hometown?"

"No, I don't feel any connection to it. I can feel a connection to Sweden, but not that city."

"Interesting. May I inquire about what the word for 'married' is in Swedish then?"

"'Gift', which amusingly enough also means 'poison'. I guess that was what you were after, no?"

"I cannot deny it. We have arrived." Chachamaru pointed ahead of us.

There, on the other side of a small river, lay a small house, built out of logs, with a nice little balcony on the upper floor and a decent porch.

It almost looked more like someone's summer home than a place you would expect a schoolgirl to live in while attending school.

"So this is where Evangeline lives?" Katarina questioned her escort. "I honestly expected a dormitory, not… that."

"Indeed, Mahora academy has a dormitory, but Mistress is… special, and lives out here in this building. Incidentally, I also live here."

"Of course, I should have expected that at least."

As they crossed the bridge, a nice solid one made of stone, they were greeted by an irate Evangeline.

"Finally, I almost thought you'd gotten lost or something." She said with a huff. "Come on, you're wasting my time."

As they entered the newcomer noted how fancy it was inside as well, with fine furniture and draperies. She also noted that a number of dolls populated the living room.

She could also glimpse a kitchen, and there was a stairway leading to an upper floor, as well as one leading down.

Evangeline sat down on the sofa with crossed arms, and looked at her with annoyed eyes.

"Well, welcome. Now, since there's only one bed-" She then started.

"Mistress, we have futons." Chachamaru stated.

"Wait, we have? Why didn't you say so when we were planning?!" The small girl exclaimed.

"You didn't give me a chance." The gynoid simply returned.

It looked like the diminutive blonde wanted to retort, but found no words.

Suddenly the robot girl turned towards Katarina.

"I was distracted by our conversation about your place of origin, so I didn't ask earlier but…" She began, a certain seriousness that wasn't there before in her voice. "You correctly identified me as a gynoid, something which isn't public knowledge. How?"

The question caused Evangeline to lean forward, her eyes on the other blonde.

Suddenly she felt very uncomfortable, and suddenly a part of her mind was very nervous indeed.

"I-I… don't really know but… gynoids are pretty common in Japanese media, right? And the word **does** come up every now and then, although not always…" She said hesitantly and uncertainly, she didn't really know how either. "And you are pretty obviously a robot of some kind so… That's just what came to mind I guess…"

She laughed nervously.

"Hmm… Good enough I think. She's not wrong, but if so surprisingly knowledgeable about Japanese media. Primarily Video Games, Manga and Anime." There was a worrisome grin on Evangeline's face, one that had no place on someone that looked like a ten-year old girl from… France?

Her last name sounds Scottish, so why France? Actually, wait. Evangeline doesn't seem Scottish though… A. K... Athanasia Kitty… Katherine? Kitty?

Wait… how do I even know that!?

Also, yes, neither of that sounds Scottish either. Where is she from?

For now… let's not mention this…

"I-I guess I might be somewhat overly familiar with such things…" She instead responded while continuing her nervous laugh.

"Well, isn't that good." The little mistress said with a wicked smile.

The she sized her up, in a way that made a shiver go up her spine.

The smile didn't help either.

"Actually, if you're going to live here, I might as well have some use for you."

The amnesiac suddenly had an odd sense of foreboding as the girl she would live with disappeared to look for something, muttering about size and matching.

* * *

 **Author's notes: Well, this got a chilly reception I must say. How unfortunate. And perhaps a certain proof that technically I don't need a bunch of reviews or other such in order to motivate myself. Well, it still helps, especially when I'm in a slump and can't bring up the motivation to do anything.**

 **Honestly I have no idea what I am doing. I know what I am planning for later, but that's not now, and I have no idea what I am doing, or if having her live with Evangeline was a good idea at all. *sigh* I'll work it out... don't worry. Well, I'd appreciate feedback, especially constructive feedback, but I won't complain _too_ much if it's not.**

 **I hope you enjoyed and that you have a nice day.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Magister Magi Negima! or any other variant of the name.**

* * *

Luckily, the events that had followed hadn't been traumatising at all. At least not for Katarina, who had actually found herself enjoying it a bit.

Trying on various articles of clothing that was.

Surprisingly the smaller girl was in possession of several outfits that fit her, and when she questioned about it she got a vague answer from Chachamaru about her Mistress needing some activity to pass the time.

A number of styles, from Gothic Lolita to Maid-clothing and even some more simple outfits you could feasibly see on an everyday person on the street.

And then there were a few more… risqué, articles that Eva had considered, but thankfully she had been reminded that it was getting late before those had been forced upon her new 'sister'.

Why did such a small girl even own clothes like that? Even if she was actually 15 that would still have been inappropriate…

Fortunately, the next day was a Sunday, and as such Katarina could spend it familiarizing herself with her surroundings a bit better. As such, she found herself wandering, clad in a large purple coat with a purple felt hat perched atop her head.

The getup seemed familiar to her, though she couldn't quite place it right now, and when Eva had bestowed it upon her she had remarked that the slight twirl followed by leaning forward with her hands behind her back that she did for no apparent reason was quite fitting…

And the first thing she noted as she wandered out of the forest that Evangeline's lodge was located in, was the massive tree she had somehow missed the previous day.

It towered over the buildings around it, and was quite frankly impossibly large.

"How did I miss that?" She asked herself.

She shook her head. She was simply disoriented yesterday. Still, she felt like there were several important facts about the tree that she just couldn't remember right now.

Well, there was one thing she was convinced of right at this moment.

That tree is not normal.

Then again, neither are Gynoids, and she accepted that easily enough.

Actually, she doesn't feel all that shaken by the tree all things considered.

Shaking her head once again, she decided to move on. Hopefully everything would resolve itself as her memories sorted themselves out.

But as she turned around and took a step, she once again found herself taking a misstep, and she stumbled. She tried to recover, but failed, and fell.

To her astonishment, she fell into someone, that promptly fell over as well.

"Ugh, damn." The blonde said unhappily as she registered what had happened.

Well, first of all, there was a person underneath her. Second, her head was resting on that person's chest. Thirdly, that person was probably female judging by the modest bosom her head was resting on.

And fourthly, and most important, that person had an odd… presence about her. Some kind of odd feeling that caused some random sense of hers to tingle.

She pushed herself up and looked at the face of the girl she had fallen over.

What greeted her was an expressionless gaze from hazel-brown eyes, dark skin framed by silver hair. A red-line tattoo crossed over her right eye while under the left was a tear-drop, slightly reminiscent of something you might find on a pierrot, or similar.

Still, she forced the odd sense away and got up.

"Sorry, are you okay?" She asked as the other got up with a flip, startling her.

The other girl nodded mutely.

"…" Then she simply stood there staring at the blonde-girl.

"Was there something you wanted?" Katarina asked uncomfortably.

The other girl tilted her head slightly, then a small glimmer of realisation entered her eyes before she shook her head with a small mysterious smile.

Then she gave a small wave and left, and with her went the odd feeling the amnesiac girl had been having.

' _That was… odd. Was she mute? I feel like I've seen her before though…'_

She shook her head, for now, nothing useful came up, although to be honest, nothing useful ever seemed to come up from her memories.

She decided to keep wandering, and aimlessly set forth.

After a while she started feeling that tingly feeling again, although in a different manner this time.

Before it was a bit unsettling, now it was merely odd.

And then she looked up at the massive tree. In her wandering she had found herself going all the way up to it.

She also idly noted that she had gone quite the ways without feeling troubled at all.

She didn't feel like she was an athletic person, so it kind of surprised her, but she actually found walking like this to be enjoyable.

Still, the closer she got to the tree, the stronger the tingling sensation got, and she was honestly starting to feel a bit uncomfortable.

Some kind of allergy? Her memories didn't give her any information that would be helpful in that regard, and considering it was autumn, if not approaching winter, it was somewhat unlikely.

Not that she thought it was cold in any way, the coat she was wearing was excellent, if a slight bit warmer than she would like.

With the encroaching sense of nausea she was experiencing, Katarina decided to cut her losses, and leave.

It was a shame, she would have loved to look closer at the tree, but as it stood she didn't think she could spend any prolonged period of time near it.

There was also a certain faint sense of foreboding she got near it, but she didn't quite consider it due to the more prevalent feeling of pure discomfort, like she had indulged in too much of something with her entire body.

To her great puzzlement as she got further away the discomfort faded, albeit slowly, and once she had gotten back to the main campus she sat down on a convenient bench.

As she sat there breathing slowly, gradually recovering, she saw something interesting. She saw a bunch of people, including Takamichi-Sensei and Evangeline, as well as the headmaster.

She assumed that since most of them were adults they were part of the faculty, and they certainly did dress the part seeing as they were all wearing suits.

Each and every one of them also tucked at her memories, but once again nothing useful wanted to come up, except for the notion that they were the more noteworthy members of the Mahora staff.

Well, there was the more rotund man, a man with glasses and dark skin, a slightly messy looking Japanese man with glasses, a sharply dressed woman with a sword…

A sword?

Huh. What do you know. Not surprised at all.

Before she could contemplate it any further though, they dispersed, apparently having finished their meeting, or whatever it was.

Maybe they had been discussing her? It wasn't impossible. An odd location for it certainly, but the weather was nice, if a bit chilly.

Still, she was feeling better now, so she should probably continue on.

Where to…?

Mahora was massive. As far as she could tell the Academy had a small town supporting it with lodging, shopping and other conveniences.

For now she had only been wandering about the forested area in the outskirts, without entering the more built up areas.

Besides, she had been ordered not to stray too far.

Actually-

"I thought I saw you over here." A familiar voice cut into her thoughts.

"Evangeline." Katarina said as she turned around to face her host. "Was that a meeting? May I inquire what was being discussed?"

"Call me 'elder sister' while we're in public. And don't drop the honorifics!" The smaller blonde exclaimed unhappily, blushing in slight embarrassment. "As for the meeting… we were discussing a number of subjects, including you as well as a new teacher coming."

The mention of a new teacher coming once again tickled her memories, and stimulated some odd parts of her mind. Still, she managed to ignore this in favour of the conversation she was having, seeing as it didn't actually tell her anything.

"So 'Onee-Sama' then? Or would you prefer 'Aneue'?" The taller blonde asked innocently, subconsciously putting a finger on her chin.

"Mu-! Just use 'Onee-Sama'!" Eva said angrily, turning an adorable glare towards her 'sister'.

"Understood Onee-Chan!" Katarina responded happily.

"You're deriving pleasure from this, aren't you?" The elder girl said with an irritated grumble.

The only response was a small giggle.

The smaller girl sighed. "Anyway, the old fart and Takamichi wanted to speak with you. They'll be waiting in the headmaster's office. Can you find your way there?" She asked.

"I think I can manage. I wanted to look around the school a bit more anyway." The younger girl replied thoughtfully.

"Good. I'll return home, and we can discuss your living arrangements further once you get back." Eva said flippantly.

"Got it. See you later Onee-Chan." Katarina replied with a serene smile.

She knew it would probably bring her trouble, but it was so amusing to tease the smaller girl, she just couldn't help it.

Of course, maybe it was divine punishment, but the moment she tried to turn around and head towards the school she fell right over.

"What are you doing?" She heard the other girl say tiredly.

"I don't know!" She cried out woefully.

 _ **-Break—**_

After Katarina had went to the headmaster's office and returned, they had talked a bit more about the living arrangements, and ultimately it had been decided that she would help with house-keeping at least to some extent.

For example, the girl had proven to have at least some ability in the kitchen, and through the cooperation of her and Chachamaru, a scrumptious meal had been produced.

Evangeline would have to keep that in mind.

Chachamaru did a good job on her own, but even so there was a certain quality that Human involvement added. Therefore, their joint effort was better.

Basically, there was nothing about that arrangement that the eternal loli could complain about in her current situation.

And, the girl was compliant enough when it came to being dressed up, which had helped alleviate a bit of boredom.

Still, there was one thing she needed to do.

As such she found herself looking down upon her new house-mate's sleeping face in the middle of night.

The moon was sufficiently full to allow some of her vampiric powers to return…

She leaned down and bit into the girl's neck.

Blood flowed, and she gulped it down happily.

She didn't take much. She only needed a little bit, a taste.

The first thing she noticed was how it was oddly devoid of magic energy, yet still even so there was somehow traces of it.

The second thing she noticed was how ancient the parts that held magical energy felt.

The problem was she couldn't quite place it.

She had tasted many a different bloodline in her time, several of them magical, yet this was the first time she had encountered this one, or anything like it.

Of course, it was incredibly diluted, and considering how otherwise lacking her blood was of magical power otherwise…

She probably wasn't all that capable, if she had any ability at all.

One thing was for certain, she didn't taste like she was a user of magic…

But if so…

Why had she appeared like she did?

And why did it feel like the magical potency of her blood was increasing even now? Actually, with a magical bloodline that ancient, why was it so impotent?

Well, this was probably the first time drinking someone's blood made her confused, excepting the absolute first time she did it.

She made sure to use magic to seal the marks, and she hadn't taken much, so hopefully it would go unnoticed. The girl did seem like she actually had a pretty strong constitution, and her blood had tasted very healthy actually.

If it came down to it she might demand some in payment if the girl ever learned the truth.

Or turned out to already know it…

Actually, the old fart never did say which class Katarina would go to, did he…

Why is she suddenly getting this bad premonition?

* * *

 **Author's notes: Well, I guess now is a good a time as any to mention that this might be a bit of a slow story. I'll try to be humorous and interesting, but I must also admit I don't entirely know what I'm doing right now. Also, not many people read this, do they? So few views... Actually, what does that even mean, exactly? What does a person need to do to qualify for having viewed the story?**

 **I would appreciate some feedback, and if anyone spots any mistakes I would be quite happy if they pointed them out. I hope to see some more reviews this time. It would at least make me a bit happier.**

 **I hope you enjoyed and that you have a nice day.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Magister Magi Negima! or any other variant of the name.**

* * *

The following morning a drowsy and slightly wobbly Katarina had joined Evangeline at breakfast. But surprisingly the girl shrugged it off during breakfast, and after a while was contently sitting there drinking… black tea as is?

"Is that not bitter?" Luckily Chachamaru asked the important question, saving the loli from doing so herself.

"Hmm?" The younger girl looked up at the other two, then down into the cup thoughtfully. "I guess, but… I guess I'm used to it. Besides, this tea is fantastic."

The Gynoid became embarrassed at the genuine praise that was directed at her tea.

"Chachamaru has had a lot of practice. We are both part of the tea ceremony club." Eva cut in.

"Is that so? Tea ceremony club, eh… That sounds nice…" Katarina seemed to become lost in thought, but there was a small glimmer of recognition in her eye.

But for Evangeline the point that stuck in her head was that the girl was used to drinking black tea without adding anything.

To her limited knowledge people that age usually didn't like the taste of tea. So it seemed unusual, and was something that the vampire took note of.

"That reminds me, what class were you assigned to?" Chachamaru suddenly queried, bringing the attention of Eva, who realised she didn't know.

"What class?" The small smirk, a finger on her lips, the mischievous narrowing of her eyes…

' _Oh no…'_ A wave of ill foreboding washed over the loli vampire. _'That old fart. He couldn't have…'_

"That's secret!" The sheer amount of cheerfulness in her 'little sister's' voice followed by a small giggle brought a shiver down Evangeline's spine as she put two and two together.

The fact that the little brat was mischievously withholding the information could only mean one thing…

' _That old fart! I'm going to kill him!'_ She managed to refrain from screaming out loud, but even so some of the physical evidence of her reaction leaked through in the form of a wide open mouth and hands held before her.

On the other side of the table Katarina burst into laughter.

 _ **-Break—**_

"Well everyone." Takamichi said with a hint of amusement in his voice. "This might be a bit sudden, but we have a transfer student."

A wealth of murmurs broke out as the girls of 2-A started wondering about this sudden news. It was, after all, a very odd time for a transfer student, and the classroom was rather full already.

Of course, one diminutive blonde-haired girl grit her teeth as her suspicions were confirmed.

"You may come in Katarina-kun." The dandy man directed towards the slightly open door.

In response the door opened fully, and a young looking girl of clear European descent entered the room.

She had stark-blonde hair, deep-blue eyes and a pair of glasses perched precariously on her nose.

She made it about three steps in before stumbling, but Takamichi managed to steady her.

"Are you alright?" He asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit nervous." The girl said with a grimace.

The teacher smiled. "Good. Everyone, this is Katarina McDowell, she has come here to study with her older sister. I hope you will all get along." He then introduced.

At the mention of McDowell and older sister a number of people had a flash of suspicion in their eyes.

More exactly, a raven-haired swordswoman, a dark-skinned bounty-hunter and shrine-maiden, and a Chinese genius.

The rest of the class displayed signs of confusion and shock as they realised who the only candidate was.

"My name is Katarina McDowell, and I am the younger sister of Evangeline from this class. I will be in your care." Katarina said with a small bow and a beatific smile.

"EHHHHHH!?" A loud outcry came from several girls in class as they looked between the two 'sisters'.

"You're younger?!" A girl with pigtails who looked, impossibly enough, even younger than Evangeline exclaimed.

"Yes, well, what can I say. We have been cursed with not looking our age." The newcomer said jokingly, although it caused a number of raised eyebrows, both from the teacher and from the previously suspicious girls, as well as Evangeline herself.

"She is indeed slightly younger. After careful consideration it was decided that she be put into this class." Takamichi added with a wink.

"So, does that mean you're really smart?" An excited girl with spiky red hair shot up from her seat as she asked.

Katarina laughed nervously. "I don't really think I'm **that** smart…" She said uncertainly.

Takamichi put a hand on her shoulder. "She has enough academic ability to match others in this class Kazumi-kun." He then looked at his new student. "Don't worry. I'm certain many would call you smart."

"Considering the wide spectrum of ability in this class, I would like to inquire which people in this class she could match." A smaller girl with long purple hair asked.

The teacher laughed slightly. "I'd say Katarina-kun is able to match the higher end of the spectrum you speak of Yue-kun."

A number of the girls made an "Ohhhh!" sound.

At the same time a girl with large obfuscating glasses and long orange hair tied up in a ponytail seemed to be quivering slightly, although Katarina was the only to note this.

The slight hint of vague recognition that crossed her features as her gaze swept over the class was noted by Chachamaru.

The blonde girl's gaze lingered quite long on the empty first seat, next to the window and Kazumi.

After a short while it seemed others started noticing, particularly Kazumi, who was sitting next to it.

"Ah! Are you wondering about this empty seat?" She asked excitedly.

"Empty?" Katarina said softly, as if questioning what she meant by empty.

"Y-yeah, it's empty…" The previously quite excited girl became a bit confused at this. "They say it's haunted by a ghost, and people who sit in it feel a strange chill. You don't seriously mean to say you see a person sitting there?" She then asked conspiratorially, causing the blonde to become a bit uncomfortable.

The teacher looked at Katarina suspiciously, and his gaze was indeed joined by a few other gazes.

A clearly falsely innocent smile emerged upon the transfer student's face. "No, I must have imagined something. There's no girl clad in an outdated school uniform sitting there."

Once again a number of gazes locked onto her, this time more intrigued than anything else.

"If you have any questions you can seek out Ayaka-kun." Takamichi pointed out a girl with long blonde hair. "She is the Class Representative. You know what that is, right?"

Katarina nodded. "Yes I do."

"My name is Yukihiro Ayaka. As Sensei said I am the Class Representative." The girl said in a distinctly aristocratic manner.

"Well then. Why don't you go seat yourself in the backrow by your sister?" The teacher finally said indicating the seat next to Evangeline.

"Yes. That'll be fine." The newcomer said and started making her way towards the back.

As she approached the girl with the glasses and orange hair she gave a friendly smile without warning, shocking both the bespectacled girl and those who saw it.

Finally, she reached the seat next to her 'sister' and sat down.

"What was that all about?" Eva asked.

"Hmm?"

"Towards Hasegawa Chisame. You smiled." The smaller girl asked.

"Oh. Yeah, I did, didn't I? I don't know. It just came on its own." The younger girl said, a hint of confusion in her voice. "Hasegawa Chisame…" She then muttered and zoned out slightly.

Suddenly an amused smile broke out on her features.

 _ **-Break—**_

As the first break neared Katarina started becoming aware of thirty odd sets of eyes locking on to her.

Or actually, a few of the girls seem to be looking at Evangeline more…

And Eva was already preparing to escape it seemed.

Brilliant.

She took a few deep breaths.

' _No need to worry. They'll just be asking you questions… Probably a lot of them…'_

Nope. It didn't help.

Suddenly the teacher announced the end of class.

Eva started moving immediately, rising from her seat, as did what seemed to be the entire class.

Katarina could just see how two girls, one far too tall with dark skin and long black hair as well as one with pale, almost white skin and black hair intercept her, before the other girls surrounded her.

"Are you and Eva-chan really siblings?!" A girl with long black hair and a slightly different way of speaking asked seriously.

"Yes. I decided to follow her here since it was so long since I last saw her." Katarina replied.

"Where are you two from anyway?" Another girl, this one with dark-brown/green hair and glasses asked.

That's… Well, she didn't really know that at all… Safest bet would probably be…

"We're from Scotland. In Britain." She said as naturally as she could.

"Scotland…" Another girl, this one with short pink hair, looked a bit confused for a while.

"Makie, you're bad at geography anyway, I don't think you'll figure out where it is." Someone said, but Katarina couldn't quite identify who.

"Where do you two live? I know Evangeline-san doesn't live in the dorms and I assume you live with her." Asked a girl with long pink hair.

"Due to… circumstances, my elder sister lives outside of the dorms. I moved in with her, since we're related." Katarina answered.

Soon it started becoming unmanageable, with several questions overlapping so that she couldn't even hear them.

"You know. Before you start bombarding me with questions, how about some introductions? I don't know any of your names." The younger girl threw out.

Luckily, it reached the ears of Ayaka, who promptly sorted the girls out.

What followed was a quick succession of introductions, and by the time it was over she had heard the names of some 23 or so girls.

Surprisingly Katarina found herself able to remember the names, almost as if she already knew them.

But, by the time introductions were over the break was over as well and the next lesson started.

The younger girl found herself breathing a breath of relief as the other girls returned to their seats.

 _ **-Break-**_

The rest of the day went smoothly, and Katarina soon found herself introduced to the rest of the class, and once again found that she remembered their names almost too well.

She also realised that the girl she had encountered during her walk yesterday was part of the class.

Zazie Rainyday. An odd name, for an odd girl. She didn't speak much, almost to the point of seeming mute, that makeup of hers was interesting as well, seeing as she apparently always had it on.

She had also tried to approach Chisame, but had gotten little headway. The girl was completely uninterested in socialising it seemed, and all Katarina had gotten was that she was good with computers, especially seeing as she was sitting with one when she tried to talk to her.

But, when the school-day was over, that was when something embarrassing, and interesting, happened.

As Katarina made her way towards the exit she stumbled, and fell, straight into Kagurazaka Asuna, a girl with long orange hair tied up in long pigtails with little bells, and heterochromia, one blue eye and one green eye, although it wasn't overly obvious.

While the girl managed to stop her from falling, something odd happened when they collided.

A certain tingly feeling that Katarina had had since she woke up in the infirmary two days ago suddenly stopped.

She had been ignoring it because it had persisted even past sleeping, and it didn't really bother her at all.

It was actually, now that she thought about it, probably what she had felt near the giant tree, the World Tree she thinks Eva called it.

Except then it was so strong it made her feel ill…

Interesting what kind of things can put something into perspective.

Some part of her mind tugged at her, seemingly wanting to say that this was important, that there was something about the girl before her that was important…

Hmm… Well, she has an impressive bosom… and is quite strong too…

"Whoa! Are you alright?" Asuna asked worriedly.

"She's fine. She does that all the time." Evangeline responded for her sister, shocking the girl and her friend, Konoe Konoka, neither of who were used to the loli talking to them.

"How long is she going to stay there though?" Konoka asked as the time dragged a bit, prompting Katarina to realise what position she was in for a prolonged period of time.

"Sorry. It seems I got lost in thought there for a while. For some reason my mind decided to take a long trip…" She said, laughing awkwardly.

The moment she moved away from Asuna the feeling came back, causing her to narrow her eyes slightly.

"What's wrong?" The black-haired girl asked curiously.

"Nothing…" The younger girl answered.

"If you're quite finished dawdling, we need to get home." Eva queried imperiously.

"Of course Onee-chan!" Katarina responded with more cheer than strictly necessary. "I'll see you tomorrow!" She then directed at the two other girls as they started moving.

As expected, a slight twitch appeared on the loli's face.

* * *

 **Author's notes: And there we go. I've been on a vacation (or two), which is why I haven't updated sooner. Once again, as with all my stories, I suddenly find myself not knowing what I'm actually doing. Still, I hope this held some value, and wasn't entirely uninteresting. Reviews would be nice, especially reviews containing feedback, but encouragement is fine.**

 **I hope you enjoyed, and that you have a nice day.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Magister Magi Negima! or any other variant of the name.**

* * *

"Well then, Eva-kun. What is your impression of 'Katarina'-kun?" Takamichi said as he, Evangeline and the headmaster gathered in the headmaster's office.

"Hmm…" The little vampire pondered for a few moments. "While there are several points that are slightly concerning, she is mostly harmless."

"Mostly?" Konoe asked.

"She isn't evil, but she isn't good either. From what I can tell her morality is normal, assuming of course, reasonably, that she isn't an actress good enough to fool centuries of experience."

"I thought you were a loner?" Takamichi interjected with a small smirk.

"I've dealt with plenty of would-be heroes and villains in my time!" The loli retorted. "I might have preferred to stay away from people for prolonged periods of time, but even so I have seen some of the best and worst amongst all beings." Eva retorted with a huff.

"Jack still fooled you." The teacher responded.

"His idiot act is beyond flawless! And he's a massive exception to every rule!" She exclaimed.

The other two chuckled in agreement.

"True." Takamichi said with a wry smile. "And? What are the uncertainties about Katarina?" He then continued, returning to the previous serious state.

"Her amnesia for one. While I truly do believe that she has it, or that at the very least is under some memory loss effect, it seems to me steadily that she is remembering things, or realises that she knows things, without ever telling us about them." Eva began.

"For example?" The headmaster queried.

"You were there Takamichi, you heard her. 'There's no girl clad in an outdated school uniform sitting there'. Either she actually saw Sayo, knows of her existence, or she is at the very least familiar with her appearance." She answered.

"Well, we did show her the class roster…" Takamichi said, thinking.

"But even then, there is the fact that she called her uniform outdated…" The headmaster added.

"The problem is, she's not stupid, and I have noticed that she is quite observant." Eva interjected. "It might have been pure conjecture, and that her intent was merely mischief. She certainly has the personality to support it."

"It would be a good idea to consider that angle, I agree." Konoe said, nodding sagely. "Then how about her age comment?"

"I asked her about it, and she said that I didn't really act the age I looked, as well as that when I demanded to be the elder sibling no one thought it was a bad idea…" She explained. "I feel like she **might** know something, but I think she is truly unaware just how accurate that statement was in regards to me."

At the last part Eva sulked just a little bit.

"Well, her academics are certainly not on a middle-schooler's level." Takamichi interjected. "She was quite familiar with physics and mathematics, even the random high-school level ones we threw in… And she actually didn't do terrible on the Latin test we gave her, even showing minor traces of knowledge of Ancient Greek. On the other hand, it seemed to mostly be academic knowledge with no relation to the magical."

Evangeline fell into thought, pondering whatever to mention the girls blood, but ultimately decided that it might be better to keep it to herself, if only so they didn't know she was sucking people's blood.

"So, she might indeed not be the age she appears… but I'm certain she is human…" She instead mused out loud.

"Perhaps she really is ahead of her age, combined with a slow growth. It's not impossible." Takamichi added.

"We can't tell at this stage." Konoe interjected. "And unfortunately our search for records of her has yet to yield results."

"Did you take Chachamaru's report into consideration?" Eva asked.

"Sweden? We did put some focus into it, but she's not among their missing people, and we have yet to find any matches in their other records." The headmaster replied.

"It's difficult to find people without good information on them, and we have had to pull in a few favours here and there. It's possible we haven't checked all their records yet, if Chachamaru's guess that she might have been from the more central parts, based on what little of her dialect she picked up, was even correct in the first place."

"Should I tell Chachamaru to get Katarina to speak Swedish?" Eva queried.

"I don't think you have to, but maybe you should anyway. Otherwise just keep keeping an eye on her. While I accept your judgement on her, you never know." Konoe answered.

"Speaking of Katarina-kun, do you think she needs some clothes? I really doubt Evangeline have suitable casual clothes she can borrow." Takamichi suddenly said.

Evangeline was a tiny bit miffed by his comment, but decided to let it slide. It wasn't untrue after all.

"It might be a good idea. While I have a few things she seemed to have taken a liking to, letting her buy some clothes for herself might be useful. It might even make her happy." Eva responded after a short while of consideration.

 _ **-Break—**_

"You want me to go shopping for clothes?" Slightly surprisingly, Katarina was not all that overjoyed at the prospect of shopping. "Hmm… I guess Eva-chan's clothes, while cute, might be a bit odd at times… and I can't be borrowing all my clothes from her… Ugh, I'll go buy some nice, 'normal' clothing I can wear casually."

While Evangeline was a bit surprised at the lack of enthusiasm, she had to admit it was a pleasant surprise.

"Good! Chachamaru will accompany you, and make sure you use the money for clothes, and nothing else." She said, then turned towards the gynoid in question. "Do you understand?"

"Yes mistress, as you wish." Chachamaru responded.

And so, after a surprisingly, for Katarina, lengthy trip into the shopping district, the petite blonde and the stoic gynoid found themselves standing within one of several clothing stores Mahora had to offer.

While the amount of money they had available for this outing wasn't negligible, it wasn't enormous either, and Katarina found herself considering exactly how much to spend on what.

Surprisingly, even to herself, despite her early reluctance, now that she was here she was actually considering rather carefully what she would like to wear or not. She also found herself drawn more towards the darker spectrum of colours, something that was quickly noted by the gynoid and presumably saved away in some data folder.

She had felt strangely flustered while looking at underwear, something she was actually in dire need of, but since she was unable to dredge up a satisfying answer from her mind, she simply dismissed it.

She also noticed that while looking for clothes she preferred those without patterns or other decorations. Ultimately she bought a few t-shirts and blouses, a nice pair of black jeans, some cute skirts, one dark-red and one black, and a good supply of various types of underwear.

Chachamaru was the one who was actually holding the money, so she was the one who paid for everything.

Interestingly she noted that the cashier didn't react to Chachamaru's robotic traits at all, but she was also surprised to find that she **wasn't** surprised about this fact.

But then something very odd happened as they were moving on. A bit in the distance she spotted a group of what seemed to be teenagers, loitering about, being a bit loud and annoying… and then there was the thing that really stuck in her mind. They were smoking.

She narrowed her eyes in disgust. "Humans." She said without thinking. Her companion picked up on the choice of word immediately, noting the tone, and what it was she was looking at when she said it.

Honestly, even Katarina herself found her choice of word odd, but she couldn't quite pinpoint one exact reason as to why she would use it rather than something else. She was quite certain she was human herself… maybe she was using it because she found humans to be hopeless, and those youths to be examples of that?

Considering that that felt rather right, and that she even considered such a specific reason, that was what she chose to assume for now.

"Is there some reason for your distaste?" Chachamaru asked.

Katarina considered the question for a bit before answering.

"I think it has to do with how they're wasting their time, but another large part of it seems to be directed towards the smoking…" She said.

"The smoking? Do you have any-?" The gynoid started, but she was interrupted when they passed a smoking man, and Katarina breathed in some of it.

She immediately started exhaling hard, the first even being a small cough. The gynoid's sensors told her that the action probably wasn't entirely voluntary.

"Ugh. I think we found that answer rather quickly." The petite girl said once she settled down again.

"Let us make an effort of avoiding those in the future." The gynoid replied.

"Yes please. I guess I'll have to avoid Takahata-sensei when he's smoking then." The petite blonde sighed.

"Certainly."

They continued on in silence, Chachamaru lacking a subject to broach, while Katarina found herself unwilling to attempt small-talk. Not that she could figure out how to in the first place.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, she was saved from the developing awkwardness by an unexpected interruption.

"Ah! It's Chachamaru! And… Katarina-chan!" A cheery voice called out to them, a slight accent betraying her not to be of full Japanese origin.

Turning to observe the newcomer, Katarina realised it was one of her new class-mates, Chao Lingshen. If her memory served from what she knew, the girl was a Chinese transfer-student and a genius of unprecedented level.

Wait… when had she heard that Chao's genius was unprecedented?

Well, there was a lot of talking, it probably came up at some point.

"Good evening Chao-san." Chachamaru responded with a small bow.

"Ah, good evening Lingshen-san." Katarina followed suit, albeit with a bit more formality.

She didn't really know this person yet, so she wanted to play it a bit safe.

Even if the other party had already called her in a highly informal manner.

"Ahaha! There's no need to be so stiff Katarina-chan, just call me Chao." The genius said.

"Okay, Chao-san. What brings you here?" The blonde replied, still using polite form.

The other girl maintained her cheery manner, although she pretended to become upset.

"Mu, Katarina-chan, I told you not to be so stiff!" She said.

Katarina sighed. "Sorry. So, what are you doing here Chao-san?" She once again asked, this time dropping the politeness.

"I'm just on a little errand! What are you two doing here?" Chao said.

"Just shopping for some clothes." The petite girl replied and lifted the bags. "We're already on our way back."

"Mind if I accompany you? I just finished my own errand and was about to head back as well." The genius asked. "Our paths should intertwine for at least a bit of the road."

Katarina looked to her companion with a questioning glance, trying to convey that it was her decision without saying anything.

"That is fine." To her mild surprise Chachamaru agreed, even seeming just a tad hint deferential to the other girl.

"Yay!" Chao seemed to realise that Katarina had passed the decision to the gynoid, and she quickly fell in step next to the petite blonde. "So… you're Evangeline's little sister?" She then asked.

"Hmm? Yes, that's right." Katarina responded. "Why?"

"Nothing, I was just under the impression that she was an… only child." Chao responded.

Chachamaru kept oddly quiet, allowing the questioning.

"Can't blame you. I doubt she talks much about her family. Or much to her class-mates at all for that matter." The blonde replied.

"True, she can be rather distant." The Chinese genius seemed to consider something, regarding the petite blonde in front of her. "Hmm… Well! That's fine! This'll be interesting, so I'll let it slide." She then said mysteriously.

Did this girl know? It wasn't impossible, and it seemed Chachamaru wasn't going to assist in this matter… Actually… wasn't Chao part of the robotics club? Could she have been part of Chachamaru's creation?

As a matter of fact, there was something… off, about the girl in front of her. Her proximity caused an odd feeling that Katarina couldn't quite place.

Not to mention that a certain part of her mind seemed to insist that this girl was of note.

"So… where are you from Chao-san?" She asked.

She had expected something about China. That was not what she was given.

"I'm a Martian from Mars!" The genius exclaimed, a certain glimmer of deviousness in her eye.

Katarina looked at her for a bit with a sort of 'really?' expression.

But even so, that weird part of her that she usually couldn't remember what it was saying, seemed to say… _'Technically she isn't lying.'_

"That's an… interesting thing to say Chao-san." She managed to get out, even as a small headache started up.

A slightly surprised expression passed over Chao's features, before that glimmer of deviousness returned with renewed intensity.

* * *

 **Author's notes: I apologise for the delay, especially seeing as this probably isn't enough to make up for it. Studies ate up a lot of my time. It saddens me to see no review for chapter 4. I guess no one cares about it... *sniff* Oh well, "C'est la vie" or however it's spelled. Unfortunately I don't know if this story is going to pick up pace any time soon... maybe Negi's shenanigans? We'll see.**

 **It would be nice if you would point out any mistakes or errors you see (story related, not grammatical). Also, I hope you guys accept the theory that Chao's magic glyphs are related to Magia Erebea. I won't say they are Erebea, but all things considered I wouldn't be surprised if they are related somehow.**

 **I hope you enjoyed and that you have a nice day.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Magister Magi Negima! or any other variant of the name.**

* * *

Evangeline sighed softly. She was already disgustingly familiar with the subject matter being taught today, what with having attended this school for… how long?

Too long, she decided, not even bothering with considering the exact number.

Bored as she was, she took a quick glance towards her 'sister'. The enigmatic girl looked just as bored as the vampire felt, the maths textbook lying closed with the backside up, and the notebook in front of her filled with the equations that proved she had already comprehended the last chapter in it, much less what was being covered today.

Currently she was fiddling with the pencil in her left hand as her gaze wandered around the classroom. There was an odd curiosity in that gaze though, as if there was something interesting about the sight of her classmates sitting in class.

Eva idly noted that Katarina held her pencil in her left hand, as it reinforced her earlier observations that she was most likely left-handed. Not the most useful observation, but a detail that might be useful in the future.

Of course, the only times Katarina paid any real attention to classes was when it was about Japanese classical literature or other Japanese cultural studies. Because, as Evangeline had seen quite clearly, the girl didn't already know these subjects, so she actually needed to pay attention.

Yes, it was not lack of interest that caused her lack of attention, but rather that she knew the subject already, and simply didn't care for repetition much.

Combining those observations with the tests the younger girl had taken, and it became clear that, despite clearly being the physically youngest person in the classroom (discounting herself), she was probably one of the most well educated.

That wasn't to say she wasn't intelligent, most of her minor problems with Japanese were quickly disappearing, leaving her with incredible fluency, and she had demonstrated the ability to keep up with Chao and Hakase as long as the two didn't go full impossible genii and started talking about things beyond modern understanding, although even then the girl was merely pushed out of the conversation.

 _ **-Break—**_

Katarina stretched lazily. Now she had free time to do whatever, as long as she came back to Eva's cabin before the day was over.

But really though, who attaches 'before the day is over'? Shouldn't it be before dinner or something more along those lines?

As she passed by a row of seats she noticed a purple-haired girl reading a book, her hair covering her eyes. She recognised her, Miyazaki Nodoka.

"Miyazaki-san, what are you reading?" She asked, approaching the girl.

The unexpected question caused the shy girl to become startled, her sudden motion causing her eyes to become visible from behind her hair for just a moment.

' _Adorable.'_ A stray thought passed through Katarina's mind, although she dismissed it quickly.

"Ah! I- I'm sorry?" Nodoka stammered out, the confusion in her demeanour revealing the meaning behind her words.

"I was asking what book you were reading, sorry if I startled you Miyazaki-san."

The book-loving girl forcibly calmed herself. "Don't worry, I just wasn't expecting you to ask." She glanced down at the book in her hands, a slight hint of embarrassment visible. "This is… well… the 源氏物語 (Genji Monogatari/Tale of Genji) …"

Katarina's eyes widened slightly, as she was surprised which book it was. "Ah, a classic. Some might say **the** classic." She chuckled slightly. "I'm surprised Miyazaki-san, I suppose you really shouldn't judge a book by its cover."

The implication in those words caused a strong blush to appear on Nodoka's face, and she started sputtering.

After a few minutes of this, the younger girl sighed softly. "Oh my, forgive me Miyazaki-san. I don't particularly mind that you are reading that book, I don't even know why you're reading it." She said, trying to calm the shy book-lover down.

The other girl took a deep breath and finally calmed down. "I- thank you McDowell-san?"

Katarina laughed softly. "Honestly, I haven't even read it myself. I'm familiar with what it is though, and its synopsis. Think I read a manga based on it once…?" A slight headache interrupted her train of thought.

"You read? Books and manga?" Nodoka asked, tilting her head curiously.

"Yeah, I do. And some other things too. Haven't actually read much Japanese literature at all now that I think about it. Apart from manga of course, if you count it." The bespectacled blonde replied, inadvertently falling into informal speech as she mused.

If the purple-haired girl noted or cared, she didn't get an opportunity to express this as a new, highly excited female voice interrupted them.

"What's this I hear? Talk about manga? From the transfer student?!"

Katarina turned towards the source, and found that it came from a taller, more developed girl with dark-brown hair and glasses, who was accompanied by a shorter girl with long purple hair and two braids. Saotome Haruna and Ayase Yue, Nodoka's friends and the remainder of the library trio.

"Saotome-san, Ayase-san. That would indeed be the case." She responded.

Haruna's face lit up, and with intense energy the girl dashed forward, getting far too close for a Japanese girl.

"Oooh! What kinds do you read?!" A mischievous smile crept onto her features as she wrapped an arm around the younger girl's shoulders. "Anything… steamy?"

Even as Haruna energetically questioned the transfer student, Yue sidled over to Nodoka, and seemed to ask something, but Katarina couldn't tell anything about it due to the mangaka currently interrogating her.

A nervous chuckled escaped the blonde's lips. "Well… not too much… It does happen, I'll give you that, but… mostly other kinds… I'm really not that picky… most of anything beyond BL or sports manga really…" She had to really dig through her still fragmentary memories to bring out this information.

"Hmm…" Haruna seemed a tiny bit disappointed with the answer. "Still, so you're a reader then? I wasn't quite sure whatever you were actually one of us or not, but it seems you are!"

A wide grin found its way onto the taller girl's face, and she looked towards her two friends.

They returned the gaze, then Yue shrugged noncommittally, while Nodoka made a small nod.

"Alright! We're going to the library, do you want to come with us?" Haruna then asked.

Katarina pondered the offer, then smiled. "That sounds great. I'll be in your care, Saotome-san, Ayase-san, Miyazaki-san."

"Bah! You can lighten up Katarina-chan! Call me Haruna!" The energetic mangaka said.

"In that case, call me Yue." The shortest of the trio added.

"I-I'm fine with you calling me Nodoka!" The shyest member added.

"In that case, you can all call me Katarina, it's a bit awkward to be referred to by the surname I share with my sister." Katarina responded.

"I can imagine." Yue said, a small smile gracing her lips.

"Well, then what are we waiting for?! Let's go!" Haruna exclaimed before dragging Katarina off.

 _ **-Break—**_

The first thing Katarina noted, was that they weren't headed for the library in their section of the campus.

The second thing she noted was that it was situated on an island.

The third was that it was quite sizable.

As they entered, she revised that. It wasn't sizeable, it was monumental.

And finally, she noted that it was downright fantastical in terms of architectural design, with some shelves being seemingly completely out of reach.

"Welcome to Library Island! The largest library building in the world!" Haruna exclaimed.

Katarina chuckled nervously. "Considering the size of this place, who knows what secrets it might hold…"

Absentmindedly she noticed a minimal increase in the tingling feeling, but it wasn't enough to bother her, and was promptly forgotten about.

"Who knows, there is no one left who actually knows everything about this place." Yue said sipping on some drink of questionable flavour.

"No one?" The blonde replied. For some reason she wasn't entirely certain that was actually true, and that there might be someone around who knows quite a bit about the place, closer that one might think.

Not that she could dredge anyone out of her memory.

Both Nodoka and Yue shook their heads. "No one." They said simultaneously.

"Come on, we'll show you around a bit." Nodoka then continued.

"We're part of the Library exploration club, whose sole purpose is to explore this place. So we know a bit about it." Haruna added.

The rest of the day was spent going through various places in the massive library, talking about various forms of literature, looking through the books they had there…

Honestly, Katarina had a lot of fun.

 _ **-Break—**_

The next few weeks were spent interacting with her classmates.

Quite often she would hang out with either Nodoka, Yue, Haruna or a combination, time often spent discussing or reading various forms of literature.

Other times she would be abducted by the martians a.k.a. Chao, who would drag her into various intellectual discussions, often wandering into the territory of University level, especially whenever Hakase was dragged into them.

Oftentimes Katarina would lament not pretending not to understand anything the two of them had said that day, as it had clearly drawn the attention of the unpredictable genius that was Chao Lingshen. Of course, the fact that she found she enjoyed these discussions did console her.

Of course, due to this, her performance in class and the fact that she was regularly dragged to one of the clubs those two attended meant that the people around her had started lumping her in the same category. Genius, even though she sincerely doubted that she was.

Maybe she could attempt to do averagely on the tests once they came?

Unfortunately, the moment the thought crossed her mind she found it unpleasant.

Sometimes she would interact with the sportier people in class, but often found herself without any reason to do so. She still got along with them just fine, whenever she did interact with them.

Furthermore, thanks to her frequent strolls, she had become rather well acquainted with the Narutaki twins, who contrary to their childish appearances and personalities, where indeed the same age as the rest of the class (apart from possibly herself).

Alongside them she had also found herself interacting with Kaede every now and then, after having met while the ludicrously well-developed girl had been accompanying the twins. They weren't overly well acquainted, as they didn't have much in common, but they had some interesting conversations about Ninjas of all things.

Sometimes she would talk to Konoka and Asuna, who were rarely far from one another. Well, she talked more with Konoka on the topic of fortune telling, although it was one field where she found her knowledge lacking. Interestingly, whenever she got close to the slightly ditzy girl that tingling feeling would intensify.

Kazumi did try to interview her a few times, but she was rather evasive, although she did try to get the rather paparazzi-like girl to help remove the genius label. It didn't work, Kazumi was far too happy to leave it as is.

Interestingly enough she did have a few interactions with Satsuki, where they would discuss cooking, although the chubby girl far outmatched Katarina in that field.

She did repeatedly attempt to interact with Chisame, but had little luck. Chisame was unwilling to engage in interaction, and would leave quickly when class ended. Honestly, it was odd that she continued to attempt to interact with her.

It baffled everyone else, and especially Chisame herself.

She also had discussions with Takahata-sensei every now and then, often regarding how she was holding up, but sometimes also about academic matters.

Sometimes she even talked with the headmaster himself, although the old man was fond of discussing highly mystical topics, something which really should have baffled Katarina. It didn't.

Then, came that fine beautiful morning that for some reason was far too familiar. Eva was for some reason sitting on a desk by the windows reading, the twins and Misora were setting up a duster trap, followed by some more traps of different kinds over by the door.

And the day that their new English teacher would be arriving, replacing Takahata-sensei as their homeroom teacher.

* * *

 **Author's notes: Ah, this chapter. I feel incredibly uncertain about its quality to be honest. As for that last part... well, sorry if its weird, but for some reason I felt the need to have it, but I didn't really want to write all of these events out fully, as I do need to get on with the plot. Tell me what you think in a review, and feel free to point out mistakes I have made. Honestly, its really nice to have reviews.**

 **I hope you enjoyed and that you have a nice day.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Magister Magi Negima! or any other variant of the name.**

* * *

Katarina watched the chaos unfold, dumbfounded, yet finding it strangely familiar. Starting from the duster trap, that almost seemed like it took just a little too long to fall on top of the child's head, to said child tripping over the rope, rolling over into a chair with his behind in the air that was promptly hit by a few suction-cup headed arrows.

Then they found out that this child was Negi Springfield, their new homeroom teacher, and it seemed the entire class, well, most of it, was extremely taken with him to the point that it creeped her out a bit.

Sure, the kid was cute, radiated a sort of British gentlemanly charm, and she felt as if he would be quite the looker once he grew up, but all she could feel was a profound sense of pity that she could neither place nor explain, and it confused her to no end.

What was it about this young child that would evoke pity? Merely looking at him revealed no reason, so either she was imagining things, or she was feeling far too much pity over how he was practically being assaulted by a bunch of teenage girls.

Or, perhaps, some part of her knew something about the boy, and despite the fact that she wasn't consciously aware of it, she still felt pity over that something… She shook her head to get rid of the line of thought.

Glancing over at her 'sister', she found that Eva had a very intense stare, one with not a sliver of affection, but one of distaste and perhaps just a hint of a plot brewing behind it.

She found it rather odd, what reason would Eva have to direct a gaze like that at such a young child? For some reason, the idea that it was related to the boy's family popped up in her head, but she really didn't understand why. It didn't really make all that much sense, so she pushed the notion away and turned her attention back towards the chaos.

She sighed as she watched Her Imperial Highness roughly pick up the child teacher and start shouting about- 'Her Imperial Highness'? Where did that come from? What part of Kagurazaka Asuna would make her an Imperial Highness? There's nothing princess-like about her… Well, there have probably been a few princesses around with similar personalities in reality but… that's a tangent, what was she thinking about?

Taking a few moments to try and dredge the reason out of her memory, she failed to come up with anything concrete or realistic, and returned to reality in time to see Class Rep provide Negi with a stool, drawing a small chuckle from her, and amusing the rest of the class.

Katarina had hoped things would settle down once class started, but instead found that Asuna started launching pieces of erasers at Negi, then when Class Rep started whispering to Negi a box containing school-supplies came flying into her head, causing, unsurprisingly, a fight to break out between Class Rep and Asuna.

The child-teacher was powerless to stop the struggle, but it was thankfully interrupted by the end of class, although Negi didn't seem overly happy about how things had gone, understandably so, as his lesson had been interrupted and he had been unable to stop it.

 _ **-Break—**_

Chao smiled with amusement as her grandfather fell into the trap, then once again when the class became taken with him.

Still, she was far more interested in little Katarina's reaction and- is that pity?

Why? Or maybe more importantly, for what? Certainly, it could be as simple as pity over his current position and treatment, but… That girl is an irregularity. She didn't show up in any records over the members of class 2-A when Negi Springfield began teaching it.

There were also a few little hints here and there that the girl knew certain things, things that no one in this time should know.

Like for example when Chao accidentally brought up the likeness between the clothes Katarina were wearing and Illiyasviel von Einzbern's winter coat, and instead of being confused, the younger girl actually mimicked some of the character's mannerisms.

That of course brought up the question whatever or not Katarina was aware of her own situation, there were after all also several hints that her memory wasn't working right. Not in the sense that she was losing them, she was perfectly fine there, could remember the names of her classmates perfectly fine.

Just that at some point recently the girl might have lost parts of her memory, mainly relating to her identity.

Oh well, back on track, there were several reasons why Chao might feel pity towards her grandfather. So, it all came down to whatever or not Katarina knew about the trials and tribulations Negi Springfield would face in the near future.

Still, it was amusing to see that the Springfield charm didn't immediately take hold of her. Of course, it didn't exactly immediately take hold of Hasegawa Chisame immediately either so… Who knows?

Chao would definitely keep an eye on the girl though. There were many things about her that was interesting, especially that part where she didn't get completely lost just because she started talking about gravity and space-time.

She wasn't quite Hakase, but unlike the mad scientist Katarina could discuss a much wider variety of things. Just because Chao was a genius scientist didn't mean she didn't enjoy a bit of philosophy or fiction every now and then.

Which reminded her, she needed to go abduct the young enigma a little bit, there was a few little details about Latin she wanted to discuss. While she wasn't an expert, she had some knowledge, and it was proper classical Latin the girl knew.

Which did lead to potentially amusing situations like when the girl used the classical pronunciation of 'Caesar' when ordering a salad. The confusion of the girl taking the order was quite amusing, but the real amusement came from the fact that it took Katarina several tries before she realised what she was doing.

With that in mind the moment class let out Chao immediately picked Katarina up, gave Eva a quick wink and disappeared, literally carrying the younger girl in her arms.

 _ **-Break—**_

Katarina sighed softly as Chao set her down. "Do you have to do that Chao-san? I have enough of a headache with rumours lumping me with you in terms of intelligence, the last thing I need are rumours about a more intimate relationship between us."

"I do believe that the first set of rumours aren't entirely unfounded." A sly smile crept unto the genius' features. "Still, are you that against the idea presented by the latter?" She said and leaned in closely with a saddened look.

"Geh-" The bespectacled girl felt her cheeks heat up, and she looked away indignantly. "T-that's… Damnit, you're just messing with me!"

Chao giggled lightly and resumed a normal posture. "Perhaps…"

"Perhaps not." Katarina sighed. "I do at the very least understand that I can't tell with you."

The genius simply smiled. "That might be more than most people."

"Who knows?" The younger girl shrugged. "And? What is it this time?"

"I've been looking at some classical Latin texts, but I just can't wrap my head around the word order."

"Um, yeah, about that… There is none. If my memory serves, I've seen a sentence, that was split in half by maybe, three by-sentences, or however you're supposed to say it…"

"I think I understand." Chao nodded.

"Okay, and in that main sentence, there was a noun and adjective pair that lay in each half."

"Wait seriously?"

"Yes, I'm serious. How anyone managed to understand anything is… Well, I suppose as long as you get used to it…"

"By the way Katarina-chan, how would you translate 'magi'?" The eccentric girl seemed very interested in hearing her response.

"Hmm? 'Magi'? Some people might say 'mage', but it's actually a form of 'magus', which comes from the Greek 'μάγος (mágos)' meaning 'wise man'…" Katarina scratched her cheek. "At least I think that's what it is. The word 'mage' merely derives from it. Oh, and then there's the fact that the Greek word seems to come from some Ancient Persian, although I don't know the word usually considered."

Chao seemed rather surprised at the answer, then shook her head and sighed. "When you're able to give an answer like that, is it any surprise people think you might be a genius? It's not exactly something the average person your age would know."

"But ultimately, it's not that hard to find out, you just need to look for it. I don't feel like I'm surprised people call me a genius, I just don't think I deserve it…"

The self-proclaimed Martian laughed heartily. "True, anyone could find that knowledge. But to remember it and be able to give such a nice answer on the fly, and on top of that, you have such a breadth of other knowledge Katarina-chan. Whatever else it is, it's also impressive."

Katarina smiled wryly. "I suppose I can't deny that."

Chao leaned in. "Although, I think the main reason might be because you skipped ahead a few grades." She then whispered.

"Oh yeah… that… is probably a pretty good reason, now that I think about it."

For some reason Katarina had never really considered that.

"Hmm… Katarina-chan?"

"Yes Chao-san?"

"If you posit that holds true in any right triangle, then would for hold true for any _n_ greater than 2?"

"Chao. The proof for that thing is, if I don't remember incorrectly, over a thousand pages long. I'm not even going to entertain that."

The genius looked at her for a few moments. "Hmm… Well, you're clearly familiar with the theorem, which is good enough. The answer is 'no' though."

"I guess it might have been. Still, that's a bit off topic, don't you think?"

"I was just curious to see if your knowledge stretched over there as well. See it as a part of our discussion on your rumoured genius."

"I see. That makes sense. Quite the rarity with you Chao."

For some reason Chao had a really happy look on her face.

"What?" Katarina couldn't help but ask.

"That's twice you didn't use honorifics. Maybe there's some truth to the other rumour as well." Once again a sly grin crept onto the Chinese girl's features.

"Ah." The bespectacled girl flushed with embarrassment. "I just forgot, that's all! And even then, can't it just be a sign of close friendship?! Nothing more?!"

Chao merely laughed mirthfully.

Katarina sighed. "Give me a break…"

After a good few minutes of silence the eccentric seemed to become lost in thought, seeming hesitant about something. "Are you familiar with the meaning of the words 'Κιλιαπή Άστραπή (kiliape astrape)'?"

"Κιλιαπή… Άστραπή? Hmm… I think it means 'thousand thunderbolts'…" The younger girl felt as if there was something about these words. "It's Greek, but where did I learn…" When she tried to dig for the information in her memory, a headache started progressively getting worse, until she was forced to stop.

"Are you all right?" Chao asked, noticing the discomfort that showed through.

Katarina shook her head. "I'm fine. Just a bit of a headache is all."

The genius didn't seem fully convinced, but relented nonetheless. "Well, if you say so. But you need only ask, and I'll help you."

"Thanks Chao-san."

"Aww… you resumed using the honorifics…"

"Humph, of course I did, after you messed with me like that."

"You know, I guess you do have a few things in common with Evangeline-san after all."

"Well, we **are** supposed to be sisters, it'd be kind of odd if we didn't have something in common. Although I'm not sure what exactly you are talking about."

"Just like your sister."

"Wait, what's that supposed to mean?"

Chao simply giggled. "Come on! Or we'll miss the welcoming party for Negi-sensei!"

"Eh? Oh, that. Right, let's go."

* * *

 **Author's notes: Well, I can't say I expected this little Negi out of this chapter, but that's just how it turned out. Instead, we got a conversation between Katarina and Chao. I don't even know what to say. Please point out any mistakes you see, and if you have any thoughts or inputs feel free to share them.**

 **I hope you enjoyed and that you have a nice day.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Magister Magi Negima! or any other variant of the name.**

* * *

Katarina and Chao arrived, not particularly surprisingly, to chaos.

Asuna and Ayaka were fighting again, something about stupidity it sounded like, although what really drew Katarina's eye was the bronze bust of Negi-Sensei that could only have been prepared by Ayaka herself.

Ayaka's gift.

"When did she have time to prepare something like that?" She mused. "The power of money is terrifying indeed…"

"Hmm… You think so Katarina-chan?" Her companion chimed in. "I do believe there are more terrifying powers out there."

For some reason two figures popped into Katarina's mind. One, a cloaked figure, the other, a massive woman with proportions more akin to a mother goddess of prehistory.

It was a mere flash, and it made absolutely no sense, but for some reason she couldn't help but shudder slightly.

"Come now Chao-san, it's just a figure of speech. Of course there are more terrifying powers around." The younger girl responded.

If Chao had noticed her little shudder, or the slight hint of false cheer in her voice, she didn't make any indication.

As they stood there they were finally detected by the Library-trio, although Katarina might be considered a member as well, so some might say that the rest of the Library-quartet noticed them.

"Kat-tan!" Haruna exclaimed as she glomped the younger, and more importantly smaller girl.

Katarina sighed inwardly at the nickname she had been assigned, suppressing the small amount of annoyance and resignation that stirred, making her suspect she was quite used to being called by various nicknames, even if she didn't particularly like it.

As for the origins of this particular one, Haruna noticed that it sounded like the English word for cat, and also that Katarina gave of this cat-vibe, whatever that meant…

And now she's scratching her chin again and the younger girl had to admit that if she could she would probably be purring right about now…

Safe to say, there was a reason why Katarina couldn't quite refute the reasoning behind Haruna's choice of nickname.

"Hello Chao-san, what were you two doing anyway?" The bespectacled mangaka continued. "The way you stole Kat-tan away, why, it makes one wonder!"

Which considering how delusional the girl who said it was, didn't bode particularly well.

"We were just having a nice, friendly intellectual discussion." Katarina interjected before Chao had any chance to make things worse, eliciting a certain look from the genius.

"Like the Greeks would?" Yue chipped in.

"Maybe～" This time Chao managed to respond before Katarina could interject, but thankfully Haruna didn't understand what Yue meant.

"When would we have time for that?" The blonde instead interjected.

 _ **-Break—**_

This little conversation was overheard by multiple people, amongst them the teachers as well as Shizuna who were present.

Now, Negi Springfield might be too young to comprehend insinuations for the most part, but he did know that the Ancient Greeks favoured to discuss intellectual matters in the nude.

So he was merely surprised that they seemed to be making reference to this fact, rather than any other implications that might exist in their conversation.

"An interesting bunch to overhear, wouldn't you say Negi-kun?" Takamichi said, noticing the direction of the child teacher's attention. "You never know what unusual subject they might suddenly bring up next."

"I… wouldn't know, I haven't had much opportunity to overhear them. Still, I am surprised they would talk about something like that." Negi responded.

"Well, they are some of the most well-read people in the class… I know you haven't gotten to know her yet, but that younger, blonde girl-" The older teacher indicated the youngest person in the group.

Negi took a look in the class roster he had been given. "Ah, Katarina McDowell, right…?" Then he tilted his head in confusion. "'Keep an eye on her'?" He said, reading the scribble from Takamichi.

"Yes, what is your impression of her?"

The young teacher looked at the girl, then he **looked** at her.

"Hmm… That's odd…"

Takamichi raised an eyebrow.

"The spirits are acting weird around her… Excited?"

"Really? If you, someone who excels at that field, says so, then I suppose it must be true…"

"Is she…?"

"That's what we want to know."

The older man seemed to fall into deep thought.

And at the same time Asuna slunk over to the child teacher, reminding him of what he was supposed to be doing.

 _ **-Break—**_

Katarina couldn't help but sigh as she watched a good number of her classmates cause a great uproar after having caught Asuna practicing confessions on Negi.

"So… what do you think Katarina-chan?" Chao said with an odd smirk. "Do you think Asuna-san and Negi-sensei would make a good match?"

For some reason Katarina was certain that Chao was testing her. She was also quite certain that Chao knew the answer to her own question quite well.

"Hmm…" Still she pondered, and carelessly said her thoughts out loud. "Relatives…? Why would I think…?"

Caught up in her musings, she missed the sharpening of Chao's gaze, and how Chao seemed to consider something before her features suddenly returned to her usual cheer, as if nothing happened.

"I don't know… But something tells me they won't become romantic with each other." Katarina finally answered, unknowing of what had just passed over her friends features and crossed her mind.

"Really? That's an interesting answer."

"Well, people can have a relationship that isn't romantic."

The genius girl chuckled softly.

"Then what do we have?"

The younger girl sighed. "Friendship."

"Because you'd prefer Hasegawa Chisame."

"I want to be friends with Chisame-san. Doesn't mean I'd prefer her."

Chao laughed.

"Does that mean I still have a chance?"

Katarina pondered the question for a few moments.

"Who knows?" She then answered with a small smile.

 _ **-Break—**_

And so the first day where Negi got to try to teach properly began.

And promptly turned into chaos when he asked Asuna to translate some English, which, alongside most academia, wasn't exactly what you would call her… forte, to put it kindly.

Or, as Ayaka put it, Asuna is an idiot.

Then Negi sneezed for some reason, and somehow that seemed to cause a strong wind, which somehow ended up with a far less clothed Asuna.

Once again Katarina found herself shocked at her lack of shock.

Next to her she could swear she heard Eva-chan sneer at Negi, something about 'Having no control'.

After that there was, predictably, a bit of a brawl.

Seriously, when would the princess learn not to resolve her embarrassment with violence…?

Following that things seemed to be perfectly normal…

That was, up until the child teacher burst into the classroom holding aloft some kind of vial, shouting Asuna's name.

Katarina could not quite hear the following conversation, and then Asuna suddenly made Negi drink the contents of the vial.

It was the weirdest thing. One moment she was looking at Negi with confusion over what was happening.

The next she felt somewhat like she might have had just a tiny bit too much to drink, and suddenly she couldn't help but stare at Negi and finding him the cutest and most handsome kid she-

No!

She literally slammed her face into her desk, thankfully keeping from pushing her glasses into her face.

Luckily for her the next thing that happened was that Negi escaped the classroom, which also meant that the effect of the love potion lessened, although she was still gripped by an intense desire to chase after him.

Thankfully she managed to resist, and soon the effect disappeared, leaving her feeling a bit dazed (probably from her magnificent facedesk), but otherwise fine.

As she sat there wondering what just happened, and looking for an explanation from her mind that was reasonable, Zazie suddenly approached her, with the usual completely emotionless expression, even less than Chachamaru, however that made any sense.

"…"

While Katarina was unsure what the odd girl wanted, she made an assumption and rolled with it.

"I'm fine Rainyday-san. If that was what you wanted."

Zazie nodded slightly, but still came even closer, seemingly observing Katarina.

As the pierrot-styled girl came closer, that unusual feeling from their encounter way back when returned, but now Katarina could also swear that she could catch glimpses of weird masks floating about around her

"Eh… What… is it? Is there… a mark on my face?"

Zazie simply shook her head with a small smile, then simply nodded and turned away.

But…

"As I thought, you are one of the first ones."

Katarina wasn't sure what she had just heard, because she could have sworn that Zazie just talked, yet…

Zazie didn't talk… right…?

At least it was cryptic enough that the young girl might think that it was Zazie that said it, since Zazie did seem like the cryptic sort, but at the same time…

What did that even mean? 'One of the first ones'? First out of who?

First to do what?

 _ **-Break—**_

As she watched Katarina descend into confusion, Zazie Rainyday was filled with doubt.

If she had been correct she should have gotten a reaction of either shock at being discovered, or maybe a retort about her own heritage or some other such.

Instead she had gotten confusion.

Yet everything Zazie knew told her she had been right…

But at the same time…

She had never met any of them, and they disappeared thousands of years ago under the relentless jealousy of the growing mage community…

Katarina wasn't even able to protect herself against the potion's effect.

She had just resisted it long enough that its source, Negi-sensei could leave, allowing her to throw it off when it then weakened.

But at the same time, it was clear the girl sensed something whenever they were in close proximity, and she had clearly seen, if only vaguely, her companions.

Could it then be that Katarina simply didn't know?

The very idea seemed absurd, but it was either that, or Zazie really had been wrong.

The Demon Princess couldn't help but shake her head. If she could have confirmed her suspicion here everything would have been far easier, as it would have given her a very clear indication as to what the girl could do…

As it was Katarina was a troublesome wildcard that could be anything from completely harmless to potentially capable of threatening even herself.

She contemplatively fingered the card hidden in one of her pockets as she considered her options.

Actually… Katarina did seem like quite a good person. And it was really only worry that even made her consider the possibility that the girl could be a threat to herself…

Logically speaking, if she was right, even in the worst-case scenario Katarina would only be a threat to Zazie under the right circumstances.

Yes. It would be far wiser to merely remain observant.

 _ **-Break—**_

' _Why, of all things, are they having a breast size competition?'_ Katarina wondered to herself as she lay soaking in the massive bath that lay in the dormitory.

She had followed Eva there as it was quite a nice bath, and Eva did like to visit it every now and then.

Of course, because suddenly all manners of bizarre events had started unfolding lately, the girls had decided to compete in who possessed the largest bosom.

Honestly, the part that really weirded Katarina out was that Eva was apparently taking part…

Why? She didn't stand any chance of winning…

For shits and giggles?

Could be it, it was honestly not that unlikely.

"Let's see here…" Katarina suddenly heard a voice.

"What do you want Chao-san?" She asked, recognising the voice.

"Come on now, we're all comparing chest sizes here! You're not getting out of it!" The genius responded, literally lifting Katarina out of the water.

"Oh come on! You already know the only people I could possibly be bigger than are Onee-chan, Yuecchi and the twins!" The younger girl exclaimed, getting strangely embarrassed even as she said it.

Then she felt a strange chill, and suddenly remembered that her 'sister' was present, something that managed to slip her mind.

That probably wouldn't be pleasant once they returned home…

Of course, Chao didn't care about that at all.

"Hmm… Yeah, that seems about right. Well, you seem like you would have quite a bit of growth, so that's something to look forward to!"

Then, things managed to get crazier when Negi showed up, Asuna's bosom expanded... she won... then it exploded.

Even so, Katarina caught herself with a small smile on her lips.

* * *

 **Author's notes: Sorry for the long wait, it was not intended. This chapter turned out... well, it went in a few unexpected directions, and for those parts I am a bit uncertain. Feedback would therefore be even more greatly appreciated than usual.**

 **I hope you enjoyed, and that you have a nice day.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own Magister Magi Negima! or any other variant of the name.**

* * *

Evangeline had grown accustomed to 'Katarina' being with one of her classmates or another after school, be it the Library Trio, Chao and/or Hakase or on the rare occasion Konoka, Kaede or sometimes very rarely with some of the other girls.

As such, she was at a bit of a loss as she sat across from said girl in the living room, not at all long after school.

At first, they had just sat there in silence sipping tea, but after a while it seemed as if Katarina's right hand had caught her attention for some reason or another, and the bespectacled girl had started scrutinizing it with the same look she had whenever she was trying to remember something.

Finally, the smaller girl ran out of patience with this inexplicable behaviour. "What are you doing?"

Katarina looked at Eva through the fingers of her outstretched hand. "I'm not sure. I feel as if there's something missing but… I can't remember what." The girl traced a line near the knuckle of her index finger and furrowed her brows.

The Vampire could only really think of two things that could be missing in this situation.

A tattoo or a scar.

Either were easy enough to remove with the right type of magic.

Still, if the line traced were an indication of what was missing then it seemed too small to be a tattoo, but quite right for a scar from some accident or other.

But for the girl to think it missing…

She got used to things very quickly, so if it had been removed before she lost her memory and she just never got used to it then that would have been close to the incident. The other option here being that it had been removed while the girl was unconscious from whatever had caused her memory loss.

Either way the two would have to be related.

"Eva?" Katarina said with some hesitation.

Evangeline realised she had been staring quite hard at the girl, which must have caused her to become quite unnerved considering she didn't use 'Onee-chan', which she was otherwise quite consistent in doing, much to the loli's chagrin.

"Nothing really." She said and waved nonchalantly. "So, you feel like something's missing, but can't figure out what?"

"Yes."

"Does this happen frequently?"

"Well… Not really, no. Only sometimes do I feel like somethings not like it should be." The younger girl slumped back into the sofa, looked up into the roof, and muttered lowly enough that no one should have been able to hear: "Then there's also all those nonsense answers…"

Fortunately for Evangeline, she was able to hear this comment, but she chose not to remark upon it. Instead, she diverted the conversation.

"So, how do you think you'll do on the tests?"

"Huh?" The unexpected question caught Katarina off guard, and a quite nice expression appeared on her face. "I… don't think they'll be any problem what so ever. Nodoka has been a great help with the Japanese classical literature."

"Good for you. And here I thought you wanted to get rid of the 'genius' label they put on you."

The bespectacled girl shrugged. "It's probably too late at this point, and I've gotten over it. Chao would probably never live it down either, so it's a bit of a lose-lose."

Evangeline narrowed her eyes suspiciously with a grin. "And here I thought it was all idle, baseless rumours. My oh my."

"Wha-?" For a few moments Katarina was quite confused, but it didn't take long for an unamused look to settle over her features. "Oh, for the love of- Of course you would latch onto my double slip of the tongue." A mischievous smile crept onto the girl's lips. If Evangeline hadn't been taking a sip of tea in that moment or had been closer to her true self she probably would have been able evade the younger girl's next move, but this time she was slightly caught of guard by the sudden hug. "But maybe it's really my Onee-chan I like the most!"

"Kuh-! Damn it, I'm drinking tea here!" The loli exclaimed with clear discomfort as Katarina rubbed her cheek against hers.

 _ **-Break—**_

"What about Negi-Sensei? Shouldn't he be present for this discussion as well?" A black-haired teacher asked.

Gathered in a meeting in the headmaster's office were Konoemon, Takamichi, Evangeline and a black-haired teacher who also happened to be the father of Akashi Yuna, one of Katarina's classmates.

"He's currently overseeing a small test for some of his students who are lagging behind." Takamichi answered. "Don't worry, I asked him about the subject, but he doesn't have anything new. I think he's too busy with his class, so we probably shouldn't involve him too much."

"Ah, the one you usually did. That's nice." Konoemon said, nodding sagely. "And I must agree. It might be better to not bother him with this too much. Is that alright by you Akashi-Sensei?"

"I suppose. It doesn't sit well since he's her homeroom teacher, but I understand the reasoning." Akashi-Sensei agreed, albeit slightly begrudgingly.

"So. How does it look?" The headmaster then asked.

"Nothing." The black-haired teacher said, scratching his hair. "We haven't been able to find a thing."

"Yeah, we've been using all our connections, but we haven't been able to find anything." Takamichi added.

"If she's from this side then she doesn't seem to be missing." Akashi-Sensei continued.

"Do you think she might be from the other side?" Konoemon asked.

"I can't say she isn't, but she doesn't seem like she would be. She has little to no magical ability as far as I can tell, although I suppose she seems to be sensitive to ghosts and similar." Evangeline responded. "But if nothing else I'm convinced she was born where she claims to be from, I just can't say for sure that she didn't move to the other side at some point."

"Born unlucky from a good family maybe?" Takamichi said. "But I find it hard to imagine she would have forgotten about having lived on the other side for any time."

"But at the same time, it is clear her memory loss was hardly natural, no?" Akashi-Sensei added. "Not to mention, if my memory serves on Evangeline-san's description of her arrival in Mahora, she appeared through transportation-magic. Like that which is used in the gates."

"True, but there is a damn lot about it that didn't make sense. Starting with appearing anywhere near Mahora in the first place." The Vampire returned.

"Well, there is an abandoned gate underneath the World Tree…" Takamichi said.

"Yes, but is there any gate on the other side that still connects to it?" Eva said.

No answer was forthcoming.

"And even if she was transported with that gate as a target, the amount of deviation was simply absurd. Or did you forget when I mentioned she appeared a few hundred metres above Mahora?"

"Indeed, so you said. And if that is the case then there is no doubt that it wasn't intentional, alternatively that it was disrupted, and its arrival coordinates thrown off." Konoemon interjected, stroking his beard.

"Besides, I think she does know about magic." Eva then said. "It's just being supressed, either by whatever caused her memory loss or herself. Chao Lingshen admitted to having queried if the girl knew what 'Κιλιαπή Άστραπή' meant… And the girl responded 'thousand thunderbolts'. Then, when she tried to figure out where she had heard it she apparently got a headache."

The eyes of the others present widened at this information.

"While the first part could be entirely coincidental…" Akashi-Sensei said.

"The last part is highly suspicious…" Takamichi continued.

"Hmm…" The headmaster stroked his beard. "Do you have anything based on your own observations, rather than information from someone like Chao Lingshen?"

"Are you familiar with how… poor, Negi-Sensei's control over his magic is?" Eva said.

"I've heard about the incident with the accidental Exarmatio, yes."

"She saw it, clearly. And while I didn't see her expression during that exact moment, I did see that she most certainly wasn't shocked in the moments following."

"And you interpret that as her on some level being familiar with magic?"

"The likelihood is high."

"There is also the part where she called you 'Kitty' the first time she saw you." Takamichi added.

Evangeline made a sour face. "I'd repressed that that ever happened."

"That's… rather serious, you know." The headmaster said.

"Well, her thoughts weren't in proper order, and we have no way of telling exactly why she said that." Takamichi explained.

"And she doesn't exactly act like she knows who or what I really am." Eva added. "But I admit that it is highly unlikely that it was a coincidence. The problem is that she is a human with almost no magical potential as far as I can tell."

"Well… Certainly, the probability of her being dangerous doesn't seem to be the highest…" Konoemon said.

"Well, regardless of all else, I don't think we have any other option than to assume she is at least somewhat involved with the magical society." Eva said with a shrug.

The others nodded.

"Unfortunately, that means we can probably forget finding her. If she went missing from a group we are in contact with they probably would have come looking for her by now." Akashi-Sensei said, rubbing his chin. "It's probably some group that doesn't want to be known…"

"Could be. Probably not one of Cosmo Entelecheia's…" Takamichi said.

"Cosmo Entelecheia?" Eva questioned.

"Old enemies of Ala Rubra, they should be destroyed by now, but considering how elusive they've been I can't exclude it. But I doubt someone like her would be part of that group that was filled with only powerful beings." The dandy man explained.

"I agree that we can exclude that possibility." Konoemon said.

"So… What do we do? Wait for her memory to come back to such an extent that it'll all clear up on its own or… Take the gamble of revealing magic to her, see if it jogs her memory?" Eva asked.

"Hmm…" The headmaster pondered for a few moments. "I think I'll leave that to you Evangeline-kun."

The blonde loli sighed loudly. "Of course you'd say that, damn geezer."

 _ **-Break—**_

"It's rare to see you eavesdropping Zazie." Evangeline said as she exited the office.

At first it seemed as if there was no one there, but after a short while Zazie emerged from the shadows.

"You noticed?" She said.

"And you're even talking, this is most unusual. I think the only person who didn't notice you was Akashi-Sensei." The blonde replied.

"As expected I suppose."

"Why are you curious about Katarina?"

"I believe you might be mistaken about that girl. And now more than ever I believe I must confirm whatever my suspicion is correct or false."

"I assume you want my help, since you are telling me this?"

"I believe that might be prudent, yes."

An ill-foreboding grin crept onto Evangeline's features. "Interesting… I'm intrigued about this. Alright, I'll help."

 _ **-Break—**_

"Aw… To think she would go and tell the others about that." Chao Lingshen said to herself. "Oh well. It's not an issue. But to think she called Evangeline 'Kitty'… Where did she hear that? Is she one of…? No, I don't think so, she doesn't give that impression…"

The unpredictable genius spun around in her chair and held up what appeared to be a type of pocket watch.

"But she most certainly seems to know far too much… Is she going to disrupt the natural flow of events? Assuming of course that she knows about them at all… Hmm…" Then she suddenly sprung up from her seat, putting the item in her hand into a drawer with a carefree smile. "Oh well! I might let them make a move first, judge what happens. This might actually get interesting."

* * *

 **Author's notes: Hmm... I don't actually know what to say right now. Well, I suppose I just hope for some feedback, be it opinions, things I did wrong or some other such.**

 **I hope you enjoyed, and that you have a nice day.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Magister Magi Negima! or any other variant of the name.**

* * *

Katarina couldn't help but stare wide eyed. Not after what she had just witnessed.

A dodgeball shot that somehow **tore** the clothes off of several people with what appeared to be fierce winds.

' _What was that? What in the name of… something! Was. That?'_

She couldn't ignore that. That wasn't physically possible.

' _Magic.'_

And could her mind stop-!

No. Hang on.

If it was this frequently reoccurring that she got seemingly nonsensical answers from her mind, then what was actually in the wrong here?

Most of the time the same part of her mind gave her not only good answers, but also correct answers…

Common sense said it was nonsense but… What common sense was it actually?

If she took these supposedly nonsensical answers and took them as truth…

Would they explain the situation?

Usually.

The tree, people suddenly getting stripped, apparitions, library island…

It was as if her very perception of the world changed as she let the answers she had dismissed as nonsensical to the forefront.

And for the first time Evangeline made sense.

The petite girl wasn't 15… And most certainly not around 10 like she appeared… She was closer to 700… An immortal vampire that had been sealed into this academy…

It actually made sense. Eva never left the grounds and rarely moved particularly far, letting Chachamaru take care of shopping and the like. Not to mention Eva seemed like she possessed knowledge and experience no 15-year-old should have managed to accumulate.

She lived apart from the others because otherwise someone might realise she had been living there for far longer than three years.

Katarina had been put in her care because even if she turned out to be dangerous there was little risk to Evangeline…

And most importantly, some of the clothes Eva had suddenly made a lot more sense, and the idea that she had made them as part of a hobby suddenly made a lot more sense. Before the sheer amount and variety had been baffling, but for someone that was actually several hundred years old it wasn't that odd at all…

And the reason why Zazie gave off such a weird feeling was simple.

She wasn't human.

Technically even less so than Evangeline.

She was a demon…

Okay… no no. This was silly…

But why then…

Why did that part of her mind present it, not as speculation, but as cold hard facts…?

Where did this knowledge actually come from?

She needed to know.

Because, if she knew that, it would make it so much easier to accept… or dismiss.

She searched, sought, raked her mind for the source…

A headache started up.

She pushed through.

It got worse.

She needed that information!

It felt like her head had turned into a piece of metal caught between an anvil and a hammer.

' _Give me that information!'_

Something gave way, although Katarina wasn't sure what, but for just a few moments she thought she glimpsed something…

A page?

 _ **-Break—**_

To say that Katarina's revelation went unnoticed would be a downright lie.

Evangeline and Zazie noticed it from the very start, partially because that had all been curious how the girl would react to the rather blatant display of magic that suddenly occurred.

Sure, at first it wasn't all that blatant what it was all about, although the fact that she was staring at Negi was a good indicator.

Then her gaze shifted, first to Evangeline, although it didn't seem like she was aware the vampire was looking at her, and then to Zazie, with the look of someone who just realised what they were.

That convinced them quite well what it had been.

Sure, there was clearly some kind of conflict where she was trying to figure out if it was true or not…

Well, everyone noticed when Katarina cried out and collapsed, that was for sure. And that was the truly odd part about it all.

"There is clearly something keeping her from remembering, or perhaps knowing, something." Zazie opened.

"That is the feeling I'm getting as well. Messing with peoples' memories isn't really my speciality, so I can't really think of anything that would do that." Evangeline responded.

"Hm… I can think of a few possibilities, but without knowing what happened to her I can't know for certain. Not to mention, if this is a magical effect…"

"Then it is very well hidden, yes, I have checked." The petite vampire shot the demon princess a look. "So, do you still want to go through with you plan, even after what just happened?"

Zazie seemed almost a bit remorseful. "Yes, this has only made me even more convinced that this is necessary. I feel a little bad forcing her to do something after that but… I need to know whether I am correct or not. For her sake."

"What even is it you are trying to find? I can't quite figure it out from what you said your plan was."

The demon simply smiled wryly and shook her head.

"Don't you dare go back to pretending to be mute just like that!" Eva exclaimed, but Zazie simply smiled and walked away, waving farewell lightly.

The blond fumed for a few more moments, then turned around and went to were Katarina was.

The girl had already awoken, and for the most part seemed fine, although there was definitely a clear change in how she viewed some of the people around her, even if she was hiding it.

That said, her demeanour towards the vampire hadn't changed all that much, despite the fact that it was clear she had a much better understanding of who she was dealing with now. It was honestly a bit baffling.

They were going to have a good long talk about what the girl actually knew, just as soon as Zazie's plan was over.

 _ **-Break—**_

"So… where are we going?" Katarina asked Zazie and Evangeline as they led the way further into the tunnels.

Honestly, Katarina had some idea what this place might be, but she didn't know all that much about this place. But she definitely had the feeling that they were headed deeper. There were a few places they might be able to reach, but the girl had no idea which one they were looking for.

Not to mention Evangeline and Zazie wasn't a common combination to see, and to make things more unusual Chachamaru wasn't with them.

Katarina couldn't tell if the ill foreboding feeling she had came from this combination and how silent they were all the while most certainly keeping an eye on her, or from something else. Or maybe some combination, that was also possible.

Not to mention she was starting to feel increasingly off, similar to that time she approached the World Tree the first time, but the intensity was steadily increasing…

"Deeper." Zazie said, almost giving the impression she was feeling something out, like air pressure…

Except they were underground, so maybe something else?

Maybe it was something magical?

Eva seemed like she had some misgivings about the whole situation, so maybe she didn't have the whole picture herself?

Speaking of which… the loli almost seemed like she was… well, there was something in the way she was moving that seemed different than usual.

A sudden pang of pain caused Katarina to stop, try to recuperate…

Yet it didn't abate…

No, it almost seemed to get steadily worse…

"What's the matter?" The vampire questioned, having noticed the stop.

"N-" The bespectacled girl tried to respond, but instead found herself crying out in pain.

Zazie was there so quickly Katarina couldn't even see her move, taking hold of her so that she wouldn't fall over.

"A relapse?" Evangeline was less hurried, simply walking over, stopping a small distance away.

"N-no… this isn't like-like before…" The young girl even had trouble speaking. Before it had just been a headache. Now her entire body hurt.

"This reaction… It's earlier than I had expected…" The demon said.

"You were expecting this to happen? Explain." The vampire responded.

"Even in your current state you should be able to feel it."

"Feel what? Hm? Eh? This…" When Eva approached even closer she suddenly seemed to notice something. "What's going on? Is she drawing in ambient magical energy…? She can't handle this…" Confusion gave way to realisation. "Oh. Of course. That's what is happening right now. She can't handle it."

Zazie nodded. "My suspicion has been confirmed. Let's leave."

Katarina couldn't help but note the ease with which the pierrot girl picked her up, and there also seemed to be something alleviating the pain, although that wasn't saying much at this point due to how intense it had gotten.

Their return progress was rather swift, with Zazie able to run exceptionally fast even while carrying someone, and Evangeline actually managing to keep up, although she didn't seem all too happy about it after a while.

It was only once they had managed to return to Evangeline's cabin and made sure of Katarina's recovery that they spoke again.

"Since you seem to understand what was happening, mind explaining Zazie?" The loli immediately questioned the demon, not wasting anytime asking Katarina who she presumably understood knew nothing.

"It's her heritage."

"Heritage? Her bloodline?" Evangeline seemed thoughtful. "I've never heard of any bloodline that does something like that."

"I have my doubts as well, but it is the only one I can think of. What I've heard of that bloodline matches perfectly with what I've seen from Katarina. The problem is… well… that bloodline went extinct several millennia ago."

""What."" Both of the other girls had the exact same reaction.

"Hang on, if it went extinct millennia ago, then how could Katarina have it?" Evangeline queried.

"I can think of a few ways, but that is most certainly the reason why I was uncertain for so long. But judging by your comment about bloodline this girl certainly has one."

The vampire recoiled slightly like someone who had been discovered. "True, I have sampled her blood and well… there was definitely something ancient in it that was magical."

"We'll have to assume that Katarina indeed carries this bloodline then. How is not important. We could spend the next few months discussing it. And what she carries would be the bloodline of the first mages." Zazie declared.

"The… what? I mean… I've seen little titbits about the first mages through my journeys but… Hang on… most of them were in… **her** library…" Evangeline seemed to be realising something.

"That you wouldn't have seen much about them is hardly surprising. For the most part they were considered taboo by the mages, and little information survived the passage of time."

"What happened to them? Something tells me they didn't go extinct through bad fortune." Katarina finally added to the conversation, having been unable to join due to her lack of understanding.

"The first mages had magic that the rest of the growing mage community did not, apparently amongst this was a method for immortality that only they could use. The mage community became resentful and turned on the people that had helped them gain magic in the first place." Zazie shook her head wistfully. "Perhaps it is shame that buried knowledge about the first mages, perhaps it is frustration at being unable to obtain some of the magics they had. There are exceedingly few beings around today that might know."

The look the demon shot the vampire and said vampire's aversion of her own gaze did not go unnoticed by Katarina, but while she had an idea what it meant, she chose to keep that to herself.

"Can you explain what it is about the bloodline that caused the incident?" The bespectacled girl instead queried.

"From what I understand the first mages didn't have large magical energy reserves like the strong mages of today do. Instead they possessed an exceptional ability to draw in and use magical energy from their surroundings. My suspicion is that you cannot control this ability and are subconsciously drawing in magical energy from your surroundings. In addition, it seems to me like the draw is proportional to the available energy, meaning that when it increased you started drawing in more, to the point where your body started breaking down." Zazie explained.

"If that is the case, we're going to need to find some method of controlling this before she kills herself. I can imagine several times were an otherwise innocuous place might prove lethal to this girl, and a few of them does exist in this academy. If she were to fall into or be thrown into one of those places…" Evangeline said.

"I think teaching her magic would solve our problem. A large part of using magic is controlling magical energy, so if we can overcome the challenge of teaching her how to use magic we should simultaneously overcome the challenge of teaching her to control that ability of hers. Besides, if she knows how to use magic she should be better equipped to handle if the ambient energy is higher than expected."

The loli took a few moments to consider the proposal. "Why do I get the feeling I know who you want to handle teaching her?" She then said with a dissatisfied expression.

"Hm… Do you want to claim that the great 'Maga Nosferatu', one of the greatest mages of all time couldn't handle teaching a little magic?" Zazie had never before looked so smug. "Besides, do you have anything better to do? Not to mention this could be said to fall under the jurisdiction of taking care of her."

Evangeline didn't look overly happy. "There are plenty of mages around here that are also actual teachers… And don't think I don't see that you are trying to provoke me." Then she suddenly smiled. "But… I suppose that it might be an interesting challenge… What do you say, young girl?"

All of a sudden Katarina could very easily imagine the small girl before her being an extremely powerful and terrifying person. Honestly, she felt a lot of intimidation, and she knew that she would probably regret accepting.

Yet something also told her that the person before her was one of the best mentors one could ask for when it came to results.

Maybe that was why she, after swallowing, answered; "Why not?" with a small smile of her own.

* * *

 **Author's notes: Well, its been a while. And now I pray that I'm not torn apart for what I just wrote. The point of time and method through which this would be revealed has jumped around surprisingly much over the time that this story has been in my mind. Heck, this exact version only came about recently, but is probably also the most logical, if the least dramatic. Let's just say the other versions didn't really make a lot of sense when I thought about it and leave it at that.**

 **I hope you enjoyed and that you have a nice day.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own Magister Magi Negima! or any other variant of the name.**

* * *

"But why would you want me to learn magic, Zazie?" This sudden question from Katarina came not long after the girl had agreed to being taught by Evangeline.

The vampire had to admit that it surprised her a bit. She hadn't expected Katarina to question Zazie's motives due to the flow of the earlier conversation.

The demon Pierrot herself also seemed somewhat taken off guard, although her expression quickly settled into a small smile.

"Won't you accept that it is pure altruism?" She said in a slightly joking manner. "Well, of course it isn't. I will profess to some curiosity towards you, what you can become… and what you truly are." She then added seriously.

"Despite all the unknowns about me?" Katarina said with a slightly crooked smile.

"I observed you, your interactions with the others in our class and the teachers. And I decided that I would help you, should it prove necessary. It did, and as I said, I believe that it would be quite beneficial for you to learn magic."

"Is that so? I guess I should be grateful. Thank you Zazie."

"There is no need to thank me."

Evangeline had been watching this interaction unfold with a neutral expression, but now she decided to bring up a matter she thought somewhat important.

"Katarina, do you know what Zazie actually is?"

Both the bespectacled girl and the demon turned to look at the vampire with surprise, although they both returned to a more neutral state after a mere few moments, with Katarina following up by entering a thoughtful state.

"She's… a Demon. And… a Princess?" There were certainly elements of uncertainty in the girl's voice, and she most certainly seemed like she was questioning own answer.

Evangeline narrowed her eyes slightly. If she knew this there was no way she was ordinary.

"Oh my, more than expected…" Zazie responded with that small smile.

"Then what about me? Do you have the faintest inkling who you have been annoying these past few… How long has it been?" The vampire started out ominous, but unfortunately ended on a slightly confused note.

"More than a month… Have we gone past two?" Katarina first responded to the last question, then simply shrugged. "As for your actual question, you are a powerful and notorious vampire and mage… Who is currently sealed into this Academy."

There had never been any doubt that Katarina knew who Evangeline was, especially not if she knew who Zazie was. What did surprise both of the other two was that she knew about the "Infernus Scholasticus", at least to some extent.

The vampire rubbed her temples with one hand and sighed loudly. "And where did you learn about all this?"

A complicated expression appeared on the bespectacled mystery girl's face.

Evangeline wasn't expecting much of an answer. She was however expecting the one she got.

"I… don't know." There was a slightly guilty expression on the girl's face now, and she was squirming a little as well. "I-"

"I believe you."

Katarina wasn't the only one surprised by Evangeline's response. Zazie was as well.

Certainly, they had both discussed the possibility, the vampire had maintained scepticism. But despite the girl's actions in conjunction with the claim, there had been no deception there, only concern.

Besides, whether or not Katarina told them the truth wasn't really Evangeline's concern. Actually, to her it might even be more interesting if the girl was deceiving them.

Not that she would say that out loud.

Instead she changed the subject, content with this confirmation of her hypothesis.

"One last thing. On that first day in school, did you see Sayo?" She said.

"The… ghost…? I'm… not really sure… I might have, briefly… But it could just have been my imagination…" Katarina replied.

"I see… Sayo is rather illusive, so it is quite possible you saw her for a few moments. Have you seen her any other time?" Evangeline responded, seemingly in thought.

"Well… A few times… I always thought it was just my imagination, but… Maybe I actually did see her?"

"Told you." Zazie suddenly said smugly.

 _ **-Break—**_

"Are you alright Katarina-san? Is it really fine for you to come to school already?" Ako queried, clearly somewhat worried.

The girl was an assistant to the School Nurse, so it was far from odd, even if she wasn't someone Katarina spoke to all too often, although she did like the girl and didn't mind talking to her.

Gentle and kind-hearted, someone you wouldn't want to see get into trouble-

Why did she suddenly get the feeling things were going to get complicated for Ako?

Doing her best to dismiss the feeling without letting it show, Katarina smiled.

"It's fine. I appreciate the concern, but it was merely a sudden, passing thing. I will on the other hand take it a bit easier today." She replied.

Ako didn't seem overly convinced, but still smiled back.

"That's good to hear. I know you recovered quite quickly yesterday but…" She said.

It was hardly surprising that Ako wasn't convinced. Whatever had happened yesterday probably wasn't something you'd expect someone to bounce back from almost immediately.

And had it been a natural attack that might have been true, but in this case, it didn't seem to be. The way it just disappeared like it was never there, like it was satisfied as long as it stopped her from remembering…

If she were to be recovering from anything it would be the later events, but for now only Zazie and Evangeline knew about that for certain. Maybe one of the might have told someone, most likely Takamichi or the headmaster… but Katarina had no way of knowing that yet.

Regardless, with this small interaction out of the way, the day could begin, although nothing overly interesting happened, just the usual regarding Negi…

Speaking of which… Not only was he extraordinary enough to be a teacher at his age (although he lacked some much-needed maturity and authority), he was also a mage… as well as the son of a hero and… a…

Why does she even know…?

Even Negi himself doesn't know about…

Okay, no, seriously. Why does she know so damn much? Including knowing things that are kept secret even from the person in question?

Suddenly she sincerely hoped she was just wrong, being silly and delusional but… What she knew about Eva and Zazie hadn't been particularly wrong… At least they hadn't denied what she had said…

Damn it.

Damn it, damn it, damn it!

She couldn't tell if she was delusional or in possession of information she had no business knowing!

If she knew her sources, then maybe… but no! That information was being kept from her.

Hopefully she hadn't made any indication she knew about that to anyone.

Actually… she felt like she might have accidentally made an indication about it to Chao…

Well… that was probably, unbelievable as it might sound, the most fine person possible…

Wait…

She called Evangeline Kitty…

But, as far she knows, only two people calls Evangeline that…

And they are…!

Who is she?

How can she know this?

No wonder the vampire would be interested in keeping an eye-

"You look like you are having something of an existential crisis at the moment."

Katarina was brought out of her rampant thoughts by this sudden statement from Evangeline, who mostly seemed amused as she looked at her.

The upside to them being so far back in the classroom was that the teachers had a harder time noticing when they weren't paying attention. Well, the teachers **and** their classmates really.

"I… suppose that is one way to put it."

"I figured you would have at least one if you truly couldn't remember who you are. It's probably for the best that you don't dwell on it too hard. It'll probably bring you more distress than anything else." There was an almost sombre quality to the loli's voice.

"Yeah, I can see the merits of that line of thinking… I guess I'll just deal with what I got for now." Katarina responded.

Evangeline almost seemed a bit surprised at this response, but soon smirked. "That isn't the kind of response one might expect from someone of your apparent age."

The bespectacled girl didn't respond, instead opting to look at what was going on with Negi at the moment…

Her apparent age…

She doubted Evangeline thought she was anywhere near… 12? Even that was just an arbitrary number assigned to her by the headmaster since it was a believable age compared to her appearance.

Only Eva and the twins looked younger than her…

Why didn't they just say she was the same age as everyone else?

No, that would make her and Evangeline twins… and that was stretching it just a bit too far. They only barely looked related, and they weren't even really from the same country…

Although, thinking about it… could Evangeline be from Normandy?

It doesn't seem like the craziest theory…

Also just a tad bit tangential…

She supressed a sigh.

While she had no clear grasp of how old she truly was, she certainly didn't feel like she was anywhere near 12 or so…

 _ **-Break—**_

"So… is it safe to talk about the wise men, women and youths as well as their arts now?"

"That's an interesting way of putting it Chao. Maybe even talk a bit about Inverse Mars while we're at it."

Chao and Katarina had made their way to one of the University facilities that Chao frequently made use of, and were currently alone, which to be fair wasn't all that rare.

What was unusual was the conversation that started up.

"And here I was trying to beat around the bush a bit…" Chao said with a gesture of faux disappointment. "I wonder… are you aware of the truth?"

"Depends on which one. If it's my own, then I haven't the foggiest clue." Katarina shook her head, then looked straight at Chao with a smile. "If it's about you being a time-traveller from the future and one of Negi's grandchildren… Then I happen to know that."

"Ooh, a bold statement. Do you have anything to back it up with?" The smile on the genius' face said volumes about the matter. She was making no effort to hide it.

"Not really, but it might actually be nice to be wrong about one of these insane things for once. Because at the moment I seem to know things I really have no business knowing."

"Oh ho. Like, say… Negi-sensei's mother's identity?"

"Arika Vesperina… complicated name, can't remember the entire thing, Entheofushia?"

"Well, you certainly seem to know, although her full name would be Arika Anarchia Entheofushia… I think I know where you got the Vesperina though…"

"Asuna…"

"I can see that you would be concerned about the troubling implications of knowing this. Especially if you know about the…"

Katarina sighed deeply. "What the… Where did I learn everything? How?"

"You know, I think I have a theory… I think you might be a time-traveller as well."

The bespectacled girl was rendered immobile from shock. Was she?

…

Possibly…?

Did it answer anything?

It could…

But it was far from an explanation for it all, and it really didn't help when she took other details in account, besides what she knew.

Heck, it still raised questions. Even if she was from the future there was no reason for her to know much of anything…

"Judging from your reaction I suppose you never really considered the possibility. Problem is, I don't know who you are, so it's very possible we aren't from the same timeline…"

"That really doesn't help us."

"Not really, no. Do you know what happened in my timeline?"

"Your timeline?" Katarina searched her memories, but… "Apart from the assumption that the collapse of Mundus Magicus must have happened, nothing."

"Well, at least that seems to confirm that there are things you don't know, as opposed to just not knowing that you know or not being allowed to know."

"Wait what?"

"I've noticed when it seems more like you just didn't know that you knew, and it becomes pretty obvious when you aren't allowed to know."

"Pain. Debilitating pain that goes away more or less as soon as I stop…"

"Hmm…" Chao suddenly had a somewhat complicated expression on her face. "I guess this didn't help as much as I had hoped… Do you know anything about your own timeline?"

"My timeline…" Once again she tried to sort through her memories to try and get something useful out of them.

But ultimately…

She couldn't get anything useful out of them. Whatever happened for her to come to Mahora, she couldn't remember those events. She could only find memories of normalcy…

* * *

 **Author's notes: Well, this is a bit of a confused mess. Although I guess it isn't entirely unintentional. Also, for the sake of my own sanity, I'm going to interpret the silence regarding certain things last chapter as approval.**

 **Also, UQ Holder... stop making things confused. Also... Karin is WHO?! Or, well, more seriously, please just actually say who she is rather than try to make it unclear.**

 **Oh, and... please give feedback. It's quite welcome.**

 **I hope you enjoyed, and that you have a nice day.**


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